Delhi has emerged as the number one state in terms of overall internet readiness including e-infrastructure and e-participation. It has overtaken last year’s winner Maharashtra, according to a report titled ‘Index of Internet readiness of Indian states’ by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and Nielsen Holdings PLC, a global information and data measurement company.
North Eastern states, excluding Nagaland, have been ranked low in terms of overall internet readiness.
According to the report, Karnataka is the state with highest number of digital start-ups followed by Delhi and Maharashtra.
“Delhi has emerged as the top ranked state in terms of overall internet readiness. The capital city is followed by Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Delhi gets this rank primarily because of its fabulous e-infrastructure and e-participation,” said Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Aruna Sundararajan in conversation with The Economic Times.
“We are hopeful that India will leapfrog from the present 155th position to world’s top 5 in connectivity, within the next 5-6 years. Things have improved multi-fold with state governments of Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana among others taking proactive steps to improve connectivity and internet reach,” he added.
Internet readiness index is a composite benchmark of four components – e-Infrastructure index, e-Participation index, IT-Environment, and government e-services index The purpose of the index is to give a sharper perspective for digital industries looking to expand their business in Indian state
