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.
'Look at what kind of sites the child is visiting, what kind of games they are playing and then tell them about the pitfalls.' 'After the child sleeps, parents can check the history of sites visited and block sites that could be dangerous or inappropriate.'
Among urban users, 57 per cent mentioned a preference for accessing Internet content in vernacular languages.
"It is high time India traded dynasty for meritocracy. This would require fundamental reforms, from imposing legally mandated term limits to requiring meaningful internal party elections, together with a concerted effort to educate and empower the electorate to choose leaders based on merit," Tharoor said.
'Instead of the government and telecom operators solving the mess of their own creation, they're telling us we need to give access to our phones perpetually.'
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.
By the end of December 2021, India had 389 million users who did not have access to mobile Internet, while there were 765.8 million mobile Internet users in the country.
The Indian government has introduced a bill in the Lok Sabha to ban online games played with money, aiming to curb addiction, money laundering, and financial fraud. The bill also targets advertisements and financial transactions related to such games.
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.
Google Pay, PhonePe, and Paytm may deliberately delay transactions, issue fraud alerts, and require an extra layer of user confirmation before processing any transactions that are likely to be classified as fraudulent.
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 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.
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.
The report notes that growth of internet users is primarily driven by the number of people, who have the know-how, use a computer unaided has grown to 65 million from 15.8 million in 2000. Besides, 70 per cent computer literates have used the internet some time or the other in their lives.
India's internet economy is estimated to reach $1 trillion by 2030, primarily due to e-commerce, which is expected to be worth $325 billion and rank third globally, according to industry experts. Last year marked a crucial turning point for India's e-commerce sector, with notable changes in consumer trends, technology, and regulations. InGovern Research Services, a leading corporate governance advisory firm, hosted a virtual roundtable to deliberate on the notable developments in India's e-commerce sector in 2023, with a particular focus on the essential role of customer trust in fueling its ongoing expansion.
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.
India now has 402 million internet users - second only to China.
Any curious mind, the court observed, can access and download such content from the internet, which, by itself, is not a crime.
The number of Internet users in India has gone up to 3.85 crore (38.5 million) from 2.5 crore (25 million) recorded in 2004-05, a growth of 54 per cent, according to Internet & Mobile Association of India. \n
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 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.
Around 38 per cent of all Internet users in India are 'heavy users' and on an average spend about 8.2 hrs per week on the Internet, according to the, I-Cube 2006 report by the Internet And Mobile Association of India and IMRB International.
More than 100 million new users added in just one year; mobile internet usage seen as next frontier.
Isn't there something significant in the UPI example for all of us to learn from and execute to enable world-scale success for our startups?, asks Ajit Balakrishnan.
'Many were caught in a burnout race, chasing unsustainable growth without innovating.'
Last week, when news about Facebook acquiring the start-up photo-sharing app Instagram for a whopping $1 billion surfaced, the digital world was abuzz with frantic activity and comments.
An on-going survey, conducted by market research company IMRB International and the IMAI, noted that, as on September 30, 2008, India had 45.3 million active Internet users. Active Internet users are those who use the Internet at least once a month. Besides the lack of awareness of the Internet in India, the survey also found that the other barriers to its use included high charges by cybercafes, high cost of Internet access at home and accessibility to cybercafes.
'With India's growing capabilities in the space sector, this creates promising opportunities for enhanced collaboration and market access.'
More than 50 per cent of SIP accounts come from semi-urban and rural areas.
India, which accounts for the third largest online userbase globally after China and the US, has had the lowest Internet penetration growth in Asia Pacific (APAC) at 17.4 per cent so far this year, research firm eMarketer said in a report.
Fast paced growth in computer literacy and greater use of data on mobiles will help India's Internet economy grow to $200 billion or 5 per cent of the GDP by 2020.
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'.
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.
Commenting on the study Subho Ray, president, IAMAI, said, "This is the first attempt to get an estimate of this market and we are hopeful that the MVAS industry with now get the required attention from the government and the industry."
Released on Wednesday, the report shows that 81 per cent of men and 72 per cent of women in India owned a mobile phone as of 2022, translating to a gender gap of 11 per cent. The numbers drop steeply in terms of mobile internet adoption. While 52 per cent of Indian men use mobile internet, women are way behind, with only 31 per cent of them accessing mobile internet, the report pointed out.
In 2025 banks are in for challenges such as pressure on margins and slowing credit growth. With the likelihood of a repo rate cut in February or April, external benchmark-linked loans of banks will be repriced immediately. However, deposit rates are expected to adjust more gradually, which could impact the net interest margin (NIM) - a key measure of profitability for banks.
The number of Internet users in India is expected to rise 18.53 per cent in the coming eight months to reach 24.3 crore (243 million) by June 2014, on the back of higher adoption of mobiles as a means to access the Internet, a report said.
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