India's Internet boom

There may be shades of doom and gloom in the Internet Trends bellwether report put out by Mary Meeker. The brightest spot among the insights on the Internet boom running out globally is India, where the rapid growth in Internet usage owes to the fastest-growing GDP as well as the phenomenal rise in the use of smartphones. Maybe that’s why Tim Cook rushed to India to meet the Prime Minister and present his plans for India, including refurbished iPhones, and for Mark Zuckerberg, Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai’s forays into New Delhi.

All the action is going to be in India considering that the country’s 277 million Internet users (from among three billion globally) represent the world’s second-biggest mass audience driven by new technology. The lesson for India lies not so much in what it may do for e-commerce, messaging and advertising, although the growth story there would also help globalise the Indian market. It is more about harnessing this great force to help the less advantaged make the giant technological leap to the modern world of knowledge and arm them with the power to maximise their gains from access to data.

While farmers can benefit most by knowing what is on offer from the government in a range of subsidies, the urban youth also have a lot to gain from being connected, and not merely in terms of entertainment or social media use for they can also access jobs by browsing the Net. The rise of consumer-driven marketing, where buyers have in-depth information on sellers, will also help India adjust to a modern market ecosystem whose benefits are there for all to seize.