According to a joint report by Indian Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) and KPMG, India’s smartphone base is estimated to reach 820 million by 2022. According to the report, this can improve the efficiency of -governance services by 80 per cent and reduce the process timing by 8 times.
Further, the report highlighted that in terms of internet users, rural India witnessed a year-on-year (YoY) growth of 35 per cent during 2015-2018 as opposed to 7 per cent growth in urban India during the same period. Meanwhile, the smartphone penetration in rural India has witnessed an increase from 9 per cent in 2015 to 25 per cent in 2018.The report statedthat rural regions spend almost the same percentage of their budget (25 per cent) on mobile phones as urban residents (26 per cent).
As a result of increased digital inclusion there are currently more than 300 government apps, which are facilitating essential citizen services, including information dissemination, direct benefit transfers, education and healthcare, the report added.According to the report, India is home to the world’s largest digital literacy programme, Pradhan MantriGrameen Digital SakshartaAbhiyan (PGMDISHA) whose objective is to train 60 million rural adults.
According to ICEA, the prevalence of open operating system (OS) in smartphones has greatly facilitated the inclusion of vernacular languages and reduced the time taken to build supporting mobile applications.
