DIMAPuR, APRIL 20 (MExN): Nagaland has been ranked top among states in the North East region when it comes to internet readiness.
In a report titled ‘Index of Internet Readiness of Indian States’ published by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and Nielsen, Nagaland topped the list among the North East states. It was followed by Manipur and Tripura.
However the overall ranks of the North East states were significantly low in terms of overall internet readiness. Internet readiness index is a composite benchmark of four components, i.e., e-infrastructure, e-participation, IT-environment and government e-services. All four components have been given equal weightage in the model, according to the report.
Nagaland also leads in terms of IT environment and performs moderately well in other categories to get to the top. “Significantly, even within smaller states, the northeastern states ranked low in terms of overall Internet readiness. Therefore, much more needs to be done in the form of investment and infrastructure development in the region,” the report advised.
It may be noted that Nagaland was also recently awarded the CSI- Nihilent e-Governance Award by the Computer Society of India (CSI) for the year 2015-16 for outstanding performance in e-Governance.
Out of seven States (Gujarat, Nagaland, Karnataka, Chandigarh, Kerala, Pondicherry and Uttarakhand) which have taken up the National Information Infrastructure (NII) pilot project, Nagaland was the first state in the country to commission the pilot project for National Information Infrastructure (NII) on January 6, 2017 by the Chief Minister in presence of Joint Secretary, MeitY, Government of India.
Nagaland also has the largest BPO (Call Centre) in the North Eastern Region with 400 seats and the first phase was commissioned on January 27, 2017. These are some of the major achievement of the state after getting the award.
It was also the first state to take over State Portal and State Services Delivery Gateway (SP&SSDG) core infrastructure project; where the State IT Department is running the State Data Centre without engaging private Data Centre Operator (DCO); where the State is acting as Service Centre Agency (SCA) without engaging private companies for running Common Service Centre (CSC); and the first state in NE to implement Aadhar based Biometric Attendance System in Nagaland Civil Secretariat.
Delhi meanwhile emerged as the top state in terms of Internet readiness with a strong position in areas like e-infrastructure, e-participation, IT environment, government e-services. Second came Karnataka, followed by Maharashtra, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
Chandigarh is ranked second in both e-infrastructure and e-participation. Puducherry ranks after Chandigarh on the e-infrastructure index.
“We are hopeful that India will leapfrog from the present 155th position to world’s top 5th in connectivity, within the next 5-6 years,” Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology Secretary Aruna Sundararajan said, while releasing the report.
“The combination of various indigenous digital platforms along with innovative and disruptive startups holds the greatest scope for digital transformation in India. Post demonetisation, the country today has 3 million point of sale (POS) as compared to 1.5 lakhs POS earlier which is clearly a transformation,” added Sundararajan.
Sundararajan, further stated that “Niti Aayog and other ministries of the government are increasingly trying to see that which states are leading in best practices.
The report found that Karnataka, Delhi and Maharashtra are the top three states with the highest number of digital startups.
It noted that of the total 242 startup incubators in the country, 61 startup incubators are in Tamil Nadu. About 83 percent of these incubators are in 10 states - Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerala, Telangana, Gujarat, West Bengal, Delhi and Rajasthan.
In the North East, except for Manipur where a single startup incubator is present, none of the other states have one. With agency inputs
