At a time when the Centre is pushing for Digital India, how Internet ready are our States?

Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat, Telangana and Tamil Nadu score well, but eastern States fare quite poorly, according to a new report “Index of Internet Readiness of Indian States” by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).

The Internet index has been arrived at by looking at four things — e-infrastructure, e-participation, IT services and e-governance. A key differentiating measure in this report is that it not only looks at digitisation of services but also their usage by citizens.

For instance, Madhya Pradesh scores very high in terms of citizen participation, but ranks low in other components; hence, its overall ranking is a poor 14th.

Interestingly, Kerala scores highest in terms of e-infrastructure which includes mobile subscribers, Internet access, teledensity, percentage of households using Internet connection, and how well equipped schools and post offices are with Internet and email facilities. In Kerala, more than 90 per cent of the schools have computer facilities.

Among the smaller States, Delhi emerges on top in terms of Internet readiness, followed by Puducherry and Goa. Among the Union Territories, Chandigarh ranks top.

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