Digital Drive, E-governance and Internet Services in India

Digitization has partially or fully replaced many tasks that were previously done by human labourers. At the same time, computers have made some workers much more productive. Another consequence of digitization is that it has drastically reduced the costs of communication among people across different organizations and locations. Digital India (DI) Vision 2019 is an initiative of the Government of India to integrate Government Ministries and Departments with the people of India. It aims at ensuring the availability of government services to citizens electronically by reducing paperwork. The initiative also includes plans to connect rural areas with high-speed internet networks. DI has three core components. These include creation of digital infrastructure, delivering services digitally and digital literacy. Similarly, National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) of the Government of India aims to make all Government services accessible to the common man in his locality, through common service delivery outlets and ensure efficiency, transparency and reliability of such services at affordable costs to realize the basic needs of the common man. Digital drive and e-governance are both based on internet services. Hence, the quality of internet services is of crucial importance. The present work incorporates a studyin the form of a comprehensive survey involving 52,000 respondentsto assess the quality of internet services (QoIS) in India. The survey undertaken by VOICE and completed in October 2017 focused on various dimensions of internet services, particularly the QoIS and its impact on users. Based on the findings of the survey, VOICE made a number of recommendations to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the Government of India. The work provides deep insights into the structure and regulation of internet services in India and hence is an invaluable source of information for various stakeholders in the field.