NEW DELHI: Mobile apps are set to make important contribution to the economy soon with a 17 per cent increase in the total Internet traffic in India in 2015-16, according to a report released by Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha on Friday.
Apps contributed to an increase of `7 lakh crore in gross domestic product (GDP), of which at least `1.4 lakh crore ($20.4 billion) was due to Internet based-apps. This puts the Internet’s contribution to India’s GDP at about 5.6 per cent in 2015-16.
The contribution is estimated to grow to nearly 16 per cent of the country’s GDP by 2020 or `36 lakh crore ($534 billion), of which apps will contribute about half, according to a new first-of-its-kind study by ICRIER & Broadband India Forum.
With Internet penetration and the start-up ecosystem achieving critical mass, we felt the time was right to study the micro-level impact of the Internet services and apps on the country and define interventions needed for long-term growth,” said Dr Rajat Kathuria, Director and Chief Executive, ICRIER. Interestingly, the ecosystem’s contribution went beyond just economic into social areas such as mainstreaming the differently abled and enabling women safety, among others,” he added.
The study also made some recommendations on the demand and supply side to ensure long-term growth of the internet services and apps economy and its sustained contribution to the country’s GDP. The key recommendations include a pragmatic approach to regulation, increased connectivity and network infrastructure, focus on developing vernacular content and cyber security infrastructure.