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Despite concerted efforts to promote digital payments and the demonetisation move, services like digital payments have not really taken off in India, said a report on Tuesday.
This is true for other digital services too, and the success of Digital India will hinge on addressing various forms of digital divides that exist in the country — be it rural-urban, gender or age divide — said a report titled ‘Internet in India 2017’, released by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and market research firm Kantar IMRB.
Essential services
There is a need to ensure the digitalisation of essential services that affect day-to-day lives, said the report. Digital India, however, can never be realised till all important and critical services are made available via the digital medium.
It also said there is a need to change the perception about the internet among people.
“Internet will be perceived as something for the youngsters as long as it is driven by social media, digital entertainment and social communication services. The real utilisation of the internet will be driven by the next generation of services like healthtech, edutech, agritech and fintech,” it said.
The number of internet users is expected to reach 500 million by June, said the report, adding that as of December 2017, the overall internet penetration was 35 per cent of the total population. The number of internet users in the country was estimated to be 481 million in December, a growth of 11.34 per cent over the December 2016 estimated figures.
Urban growth
According to the findings of the report, urban India witnessed a growth of 9.66 per cent from December 2016 and is presently estimated to have around 295 million internet users.
On the other hand, rural India witnessed a growth of 14.11 per cent over the period, and is presently estimated to have around 186 million internet users.
“The future growth policies therefore must focus on bridging the digital divide that exists between urban and rural India today. In terms of numbers, urban India with an estimated population of 455 million already has 295 million using the internet,” the report said.
Rural India, with an estimated population of 918 million as per 2011 census, has only 186 million internet users. Thus, there are a potential 732 million users still in rural India, it added.
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