New Delhi (The Island/ANN) - The Internet has established its role as a powerful economic force multiplier, and its contribution to India's gross domestic product (GDP) will explode to a staggering US$100 billion by 2015 from $30 billion at present, according to a new study.
The study on the "Impact of Internet on the Indian Economy" by McKinsey, which is still to be released, could well become a new anchor for the Government's programmes to enhance digital citizenship.
Revealing the highlights of the study, in the presence of Union Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal at a curtain-raiser held to announce a two-day multistakeholder conference on Internet governance to be held at FICCI in New Delhi on October 4-5, McKinsey said the contribution of the Internet to global GDP is roughly three per cent or $1.7 trillion and its performance in India will eventually mirror this trend.
The government is also alive to the growing power of the Internet, including as a communications multiplier. Sibal said the government of India does not want to have control over the Internet. "Any nation which wants to be a stakeholder and key player in the 21st Century must come to terms with the cyberworld," he declared.
The world currently has 2 billion Internet users, of whom 50 per cent live outside the developed world. The global Internet population is projected to climb to 2.6-2.9 billion by 2015. McKinsey says that, of this, 30 "aspiring countries" with a very high economic growth have seen Internet users grow at five times the level in the developed world. In the next 10 years, netizens in these 30 countries are projected to grow at 10 times the pace in the developed world.
