Despite the launch of e-governance projects way back in 1990s, the deep ‘digital divide’ — which existed in India till about a decade back — not only created economic disparities between those who could afford technology and those who could not, but also affected the country’s overall growth due to lack of required digital infrastructure.
The situation has, however, changed drastically in India in the past decade since Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Digital India campaign on 1 July 2015 to digitally empower the country and raise India’s stature in the world by transforming the country into a knowledge-based economy.
As we celebrate 10 years of Digital India initiative, India — which lagged behind in technology till 2014 — has become the world’s digital capital by improving the lives of all citizens through the digital delivery of services, expanding the digital economy and employment opportunities.
Reflecting the success of the Digital India initiative, over 95 per cent villages have now got access to Internet with rural telephone connections jumping from 377.78 million in 2014 to 536.65 million and rural tele-density jumping from 44 per cent in 2014 to 59.06 per cent in 2025.
Likewise, the Internet penetration rate in India has risen to over 55 per cent in 2025 from about 14 per cent in 2014, the number of Internet users has reached 97 crore in 2025 from 25 crore in 2014, marking a growth of around 288 per cent.
Rise of Digital Economy
As Indian economy has digitalised at a remarkable pace over the last decade, India is the third largest digitalised country in the world after the US and China- in terms of economy-wide digitalisation, according to the State of India’s Digital Economy Report 2024, thus leaving behind developed countries like United Kingdom, Germany and South Korea.
The digital economy, which contributed 11.74 per cent to the national income in 2022–23 and is projected to grow to 13.42 per cent by 2024–25.
It is further expected to grow almost twice as fast as the overall economy, contributing to nearly one-fifth of national income by 2029-30, leaving behind agriculture or manufacturing.
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