India is the largest ‘connected’ nation with more than 800 Mn broadband users

14 December 2022: India is the largest ‘connected’ nation in the world today with more than 800 million broadband users, informed the Minister of State for Electronics & Information Technology and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Rajeev Chandrasekhar. He was addressing the concluding ceremony of the India Internet Governance Forum 2022, here yesterday, with the theme ‘Leveraging Techade for Empowering Bharat’. The Secretary, MeitY, Alkesh Kumar Sharma, and other dignitaries were present on occasion. The India Internet Government Forum is an initiative associated with the UN Internet Governance Forum (UN-IGF).

He informed that 5G and the largest rural broadband connectivity network project at BharatNet will have 1.2 billion Indian users constituting the single largest presence of the global internet. He further said that we also expect further technological innovations as well as updated regulatory policies to remain relevant.

He further said that during the G20 Presidency, the Prime Minister declared that he will be open to India offering that platform to all those nations in the Global South that want to transform their digital economy and their governance model like India. In the next few years, this multistakeholder engagement must go beyond the intellectual academic discussion to ensure the internet grows and innovation grows while keeping both safe and trusted and accountable for all the billion digital nagriks of India.

Speaking about the second edition of IIGF, the Secretary, MeitY, Alkesh Kumar Sharma said that the Digital India program augments India’s mission with digital literacy initiative skills with an exemplary indigenous success story, which has become a world story with technical progress shaping new India. The theme of IIGF 2022 “Leveraging Techade for Empowering Bharat” is appropriate as India is looking at the major initiative of connecting the unconnected ones with the best internet connectivity.