KOCHI: As Kerala gets ready to be declared India’s first ‘Digital State’ on August 15, a host of vital data shows that the state is well ahead of other states in e-matters.
The state has the highest mobile penetration with more than 30 million connections for a population of 33 million, with a rapid increase in the usuage of smart phones. It also has high Internet penetration, covering about 20 per cent of the households through broadband and another 15 per cent through mobile, as per the TRAI’s (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) latest figures.
Kerala is among the top five states if teledensity is concerned (95.70 persons with telephone connections for every 100 individuals). The other e-statistics are as follows: 34.71 Internet subscripions per 100 population, 12.31 million Internet subscriptions, 2.68 million wireline subscriber base of which 65 per cent is rural and 31.13 million wireless subscribers.
Officials attributed the state’s achievement in the e-sphere to “visionary measures” of the government by opening up the doors of digital literacy to its citizens through the Akshaya project and IT@School project way back in 2002.
“The ever-changing technology landscape and the recent growth of Internet as well as the smart mobile phones penetration of the State, together with the proactive measures of the government to digitally empower the citizens have helped the State to make significant strides in turning Kerala into a knowledge-powered economy and also in realising its vision of being the first digital society of the country,” said the blue print prepared by the government for ‘Digital Kerala’ plans ‘Vision 2020’.
In addition to Akshaya and IT@School, the other two pillars which contributed to Kerala’s emergence as a digital society are Digital infrastructure availability and State Data Centre & allied applications.
The ‘Digital Kerala’ blue print aims to turn Kerala into a digital knowledge society to achieve sustainable economic growth, to bridge the digital divide by making available the digital infrastructure accessible to all at their fingerprints at affordable cost and to avail the various e-services offered by the government. It also would promote entrepreneurship and generate more employment opportunity for the youth in next five years, besides attracting more investments and to promote IT export of the state.