Internet users grow, but they are still too few
The finding that India is now the world's third largest user of the Internet, after the US and China, should warm the hearts of smart phone and computer manufactures and give a fillip to Internet service providers as well. A report by global digital measurement and analytics firm comScore has said that the number of Internet users in the country has increased by a respectable 31 per cent since March 2012, and close to 74 million users are now hooked to the Net. This is not surprising given that a large section of the population is young and getting increasingly digital savvy; some three-fourth of the Net users are in the age group of 35 and below. The rise in sales of smart phones is but one indication of that. The rapid spread of social media in the country too demonstrates the growing reach of the Internet. There was a time not too long ago when the Internet was a novelty and users were in seventh heaven just being able to send and receive mail and type out their stuff. Kids were happy using the paint brush application and making spidery drawings on the screen. As more applications became accessible, the role of the Net transformed. Today, social media has begun to even determine the course of political discussions and has become an alternative platform for many to voice opinions which the conventional media would shut out. The report says that nearly 25 per cent of time that the users spend on the Internet is on social media. Children have abandoned the fetish for amateur diagrams and have landed on Facebook and elsewhere. The Internet has connected doctors and patients separated from each other by thousands of miles and many seas. Students are glued to their computer screens learning courses that are beamed from afar and are interacting with their mentors without having to pay tiresome visits to the latter. The list is endless, and it's all because of the rapid spread of the Internet in India.
Happy though the scenario is, there are glitches that need to be addressed if the Net revolution is not to peter out or stagnate in coming years. The first is that a vast majority of the country, especially in rural India, does not have access to the Internet and the benefits that it offers. Farmers could benefit immensely from updated material they can glean from Internet, including new techologies and price trends of produce. But the issue is that many do not own a computer even or have access to it, and the few that do, have a problem running it for want of power supply. Service providers have still to reach the rural interiors with their dongles etc. If the problems are fixed, we can see another Net revolution, this time in rural India. Though many more Indians living in villages are purchasing smart phones with new-generation Internet services, the fact is that Internet traffic on smart phones, even in the urban areas, is low. That's another aspect which needs fixing.