India trails Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh on internet resilience: Report

Mumbai, August 8

India trails neighbours like Bhutan, Bangladesh and even Nepal on internet resilience, a report by a global non-profit said on Tuesday.

A resilient internet connection is one that maintains an acceptable level of service in the face of faults and challenges to normal operation, the Internet Society said, adding connectivity is essential for a country’s economy.

India achieved an overall score of 43 per cent and is ranked sixth in South Asia behind Bhutan (58 per cent), Bangladesh (51 per cent), Maldives (50 per cent), Sri Lanka (47 per cent) and Nepal (43 per cent), the report said.

However, the country is ranked ahead of Pakistan, the report, which looked at infrastructure, performance, security, and market readiness, said.

“India’s security is ranked above average, attributed to having the highest IPv6 (the newest Internet Protocol to accommodate growing networks) adoption in the world. Market readiness – the ability of India’s Internet market to self-regulate and provide affordability – is ranked comparatively poorly,” it said.

On security, the Indian score is 66 per cent, but the same goes down to 31 per cent on infrastructure and 35 per cent on market readiness.

Market readiness is arrived at by assessing the ability of India’s internet market to self-regulate and provide affordability, the report said, adding that this is a comparatively poor ranking.

Decision-makers in India can use this snapshot to understand the strengths and weaknesses in their Internet ecosystem and make data-driven decisions on where to invest to improve the country’s overall resilience, it said.