DATA STORY : Digital Divide In India

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E-Government Development Index (EDGI)

• The E-Government Development Index 2020 measures e-government performance of countries relative to one another as opposed to being an absolute measurement.
• The report is published by United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA).
• It serves as a benchmarking and development tool for countries to learn from each other, identify areas of strength and challenges in e-government and shape their policies and strategies in this area.
• Mathematically, EGDI is the weighted average of normalized scores on the three most important dimensions of e-Government, namely
  • The Scope and quality of online services as online Service Index (OSI)
  • The Status of the development of telecommunication infrastructure or the Telecommunication Infrastructure Index (TII)
  • The inherent human capital or the Human Capital Index (HCI).
• India came at a position of 100 with an EGDI Composite Score of 0.5964 as against a rank of 96 with an EGDI Composite Score of 0.5669 in 2018.

Digital divide in India-

• Digital divide in India is measured by comparing accessibility to internet and ability to use internet across rural and urban region, and among men and women. The data is largely taken from E-Government Development Index 2020 and GSMA’s 2021 mobile gender gap report
• Issues- The prevailing digital divide also leads to divide in access to education, health, economic and governance facilities and thus, impacting overall inclusive growth in India.
• Measures- Though the union government is taking several steps in line with the ‘Digital India Mission’, some more measures can be providing incentives to buy smartphones and promoting digital literacy with the support of non-state associations.