India's internet user base crossed 950 million in 2025, driven largely by rapid growth in rural connectivity, rising short-video consumption, and increasing adoption of AI, according to a report released by IAMAI on Thursday.
App-based communication services providers and Indian telcos are at loggerheads over the SIM-binding directions issued by the department of telecom, which are to be complied with by the end of February 2026.
The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) has named Ajit Balakrishnan as its Chairman Emeritus.The governing board of the IAMAI has also unanimously elected Sanjeev Bikhchandani as its chairman for 2008-09.
Among urban users, 57 per cent mentioned a preference for accessing Internet content in vernacular languages.
The Karnataka government is planning to levy a fee of 1-2 per cent on aggregator platforms like Swiggy, Zomato, Flipkart, Amazon, Uber, etc., a government source said on Friday, adding that an announcement in this regard could come following a sub-committee meeting next week. "There is a sub-committee meeting scheduled in the coming week.
Tech and startup industry bodies have again pushed back against calls by telecom operators to bring over-the-top (OTT) services under a licensing regime similar to telcos, and open them up to taxation. Ahead of public consultations on the issue later this week, the Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), Nasscom and the US India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), among others, have written to the government arguing against such efforts.
A group comprising top tech startups and unicorns has raised several "serious concerns" over a platform-based gig workers Bill proposed by the Karnataka government, saying it would hurt the ease of doing business. They told the state government the Bill in its current form would hamper operations and increase regulatory and compliance burden on the nascent gig and startup economy, according to sources.
Nearly 665 million Indians or 45 per cent of the rural population did not have access to the internet as of 2023. Difficulty in understanding internet procedures, insufficient awareness of its benefits, and a lack of interest have emerged as the top reasons for a gap in internet penetration in rural India, according to a joint report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and Kantar. "The proficiency of English in rural India is very low. While we have content in Hindi, the internet is English-heavy.
The digital platforms are responsible and accountable for ensuring the safety of 'digital nagriks', the minister said, adding that the government will respond to every instance of alleged misuse or alleged breach of users' privacy.
The number of internet users in rural India increased 18 percent last year, faster than growth in urban areas and continuing a trend that started two years ago. Internet users in urban India increased 5 percent in 2021. Rural India has 351 million users, or 37 percent of people there, according to a report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and data analytics company KANTAR.
The Bill says that the central government, in consultation with the Data Protection Authority, can direct any data fiduciary or data processor to provide non-personal data to enable better targeting of delivery of services. The government can also ask data processors to provide data for formulation of evidence-based policies for its own use.
Overall, India had 451 million internet users at the end of March this year, second only to China in terms of monthly active internet users, the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) said in its report titled 'India Internet 2019'.
Making the digital medium indispensable for marketing and branding initiatives and the need to look at Internet in a holistic sense were some of the ideas discussed by Ignitee Digital Solutions in association with the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).
The government has created a comprehensive budget with sharp focus on sustaining economic activity and investment but more clarity is needed on areas like taxation framework for adopting remote working on a long-term basis, IT body Nasscom said on Monday. The industry association noted that the IT/ITeS (Information Technology-enabled Services) industry has been a key driver of growth and jobs in 2020 and there is an opportunity to significantly accelerate it further. "For the IT sector, one of the biggest needs ahead of us is the development of future business models, with hybrid working becoming a reality. "We look forward for the government to provide clarity on providing a framework in direct taxes and indirect taxes for the industry to adopt WFH/remote working on a long-term basis," Nasscom said in a statement.
'United Health Interface is in line with UPI. UPI is a language of money transfer, similarly, UHI is a set of protocols, which is going to create a language of health service delivery'
Online retail in India touched $12.6 billion in 2013.
Even as India's internet base continues to widen, with the country set to have over 900 internet users by 2025, a parallel rise in cyber threats has become a matter of huge concern. Experts say that the sudden surge in digital adoption left little time to develop a cybersecurity backbone for the country. This has put large amounts of data at risk.
Intermediary platforms would take down content that violates the code of conduct in 'real time', once they receive a legal notice from the EC officers tasked with looking at content violations, reports Neha Alawadhi.
More than 100 million new users added in just one year; mobile internet usage seen as next frontier.
Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma said on Wednesday that the company's share market performance has been in line with that of global peers in the sector over the past six months due to macroeconomic factors. "Macro factors like quantitative easing, free money due to US monetary policy and other parameters led to a spook in the market in terms of pricing the IPO. "Paytm's shares have received a similar response to that of global peers in the last six months...But that is not a complete reasoning.
"One WhatsApp message and the damage is done," he said.
Former RBI deputy governor R Gandhi on Tuesday made a case for treating and regulating crypto as a separate asset class with a view to enabling governments around the world to effectively deal with illegal activities associated with virtual currencies. After quite a lot of debate over the years, he said, people have fully understood that crypto cannot be a currency because the fundamental element of a currency- that it should be a legal tender- is missing in this case. He said that in this case, one cannot compel a crypto currency to be accepted by another person as it is not a legal tender.
Chandigarh is ranked second in both e-infrastructure and e-participation. Puducherry ranks after Chandigarh on the e-infrastructure index.
They wanted to learn about the set-up and support entrepreneur there.
IAMAI in a statement, which represents digital businesses in India, said Trai's recommendation to formulate standards of anonymisation and de-identification was akin to putting the cart before the horse, and till such time the Srikrishna Committee submits the report, making these standards would be like groping in the dark.
The Election Commission has called for a meeting with websites on November 18 to discuss the use of social media by political parties and candidates in the ongoing five-state elections.
Driven by strong adoption of cheaper smartphones and affordable data plans, the number of mobile Internet users in India is expected to reach 213 million by June this year, says a report.
It also plans to open 5 new centres across India in addition to its two fulfilment centres (FCs) in Mumbai and Bangalore.
By June 2014, India's Internet user numbers will be staggering - ahead of the US and only a little behind China - but there are gaping holes in this growth story.
Affordable smartphones will help to increase the reach.
Ratan Tata said he continued to feel the need to support young entrepreneurs who were keen to unleash the Indian tiger.
According to the latest report by Internet and Mobile Association of India, the number of people from rural regions accessing internet rose 73 per cent in the last two years.
Not just the product range, even discounts and returns policy are attractive. But there are pitfalls.
The survey found that towns with less than 2 lakh population collectively returned a much higher number of internet users that the top four metros put together.
Telcos propose licence regime for apps like WhatsApp, Skype.
Fuelled by the sustained growth of the online travel industry, the Indian e-commerce market will gallop at an impressive growth rate of 47 per cent to over Rs 46,000 crore (Rs 460 billion) in the 2011 calendar year, a report said.
VAS operators constantly complain that as they provide features, content and a wide range of services like ringer tunes to mobile operators for their customers in the absence of a proper regulatory structure, they don't get adequate financial returns from telcos.
The Indian online advertising market comprising of text and display advertising will grow to Rs 993 crore (Rs 9.93 billion)in this fiscal from Rs 785 crore (Rs 7.85 billion) in the financial year 2009-10, a study says.
Homegrown microblogging platform Koo said the new guidelines will help clarify the responsibilities of intermediaries.
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