Osama Manzar of the Digital Empowerment Foundation gave an overview of India’s effort to utilize ICTs for development. With more than one billion people, India has the second largest population in the world. More than 70% of the population lives in rural areas, with literacy hovering around 50%. Around 53% of the population lives below the poverty line. Less than one person per hundred own a computer, and there are less than .1 cybercafes or telecenters per 10,000 people; approximately 1.7% of the population uses the Internet.
India has some media strengths: television and radio penetration is around 80%, but overall, new media content is extraordinarily limited in local languages – 18 languages are recognized as official languages, and countless others are spoken at the local level. The digital divide remains wide, but this “canyon,” as Manzar put it, is really an opportunity for India’s economic development.
Despite its many challenges, India is now the second biggest software exporter in the world. Indian expats are the largest diaspora population working in Silicon Valley as well. Internationally, there has been much investment in India, with many donors and NGOs using the country as a testbed for bridging the digital divide; Manzar cited a litany of programs sponsored by entities ranging from OneWorld International to the World Bank. The government has also begun deploying “rural information kiosks” in every village in the country.