Internet Readiness Index of Indian States

Delhi ranks No 1, thanks to its e-infrastructure and e-participation but should focus on IT environment and Government E-services   

Delhi, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Maharashtra are the Top 5 states in Internet Readiness Index of Indian states published by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and Nielsen. 

In the large states category, the Top 4 states in Internet Readiness Index of Indian states include - Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Maharashtra. In small states and union territory category, the Top 3 states in Internet Readiness of Indian states include - Delhi, Chandigarh and Puducherry. In the North Eastern states category, the Top 3 Internet Readiness of Indian North Eastern states category, the Top 3 includes - Nagaland, Mizoram and Manipur. 

The Internet Readiness Index of Indian states is quiet low for North Eastern states. The government both state and central government need to focus on infrastructure development in a big way. 

Internet Readiness Index is a composite benchmark of four parameters - e-infrastructure index, e-participation index, IT environment index and Government e-services index. In this model, Nielsen has taken equal weightage in this model. Along with the indexation, a primary survey was conducted to assess the ICT policies of the states.  

E-infrastructure comprises of tools, facilities and resources that are required by the public for Internet readiness. The parameters measured in this category include - Tele-density, mobile subscribers per person, share of praise payers in ISPs, mobile subscribers with Internet access, percentage of households using computer/laptop with Internet connection, number of post offices under Project Arrow, Wi-Fi in universities and public Wi-Fi hotspots. 

E-participation captures the Internet readiness of the state population in terms of their present digital engagement. The parameters measured in this category include - Facebook users, number of e-transactions in utility bill payments, number of e-transactions in B2C services, number of e-transactions in statutory and non-statutory services, ARPU of mobile services and ratio of number of adults completed primary or higher level of education to total population.   

IT Environment captures the extent of IT/ITES industry in each state so as to ascertain how well each state has managed to harness the growth potential from one of the most dynamic industries of the country. The parameters measured in this category include - Number of IT companies per 1,000 population, ratio of IT workers to total workers, number of digital start-ups and number of digital start-up incubators. 

Government E-Services focuses on capturing the e-services offered by the states and its adoption by the local population. The parameters measured in this category include - Percentage of kiosks installed under rural wireline broadband scheme, expenditure incurred on operational common service centres per person, no of e-services rolled out for citizen participation, number of CSCs, number of Jan Dhan account opened, number of Aadhaar card issued and E-books.    

The qualitative analysis will definitely help state policy makers to device future roadmaps for the Internet infrastructure in their respective states so as to raise their scores in various indices considered for mapping the states by resisting their ICT policies to ensure that these states are in sync with the top states. The increase in Internet Readiness Index will also help states to get start-up community in their states which would be good for employment perspective.