India ranks eighth among 125 countries in terms of its digital evolution momentum, released Digital Intelligence Index 2024. The ‘momentum’ of digital evolution is calculated based on the annual rate of change in a country’s digital evolution, essentially how quickly its digital transformation is occurring. This is measured using 184 indicators for each year.
Global Trends:
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Rankings based on digital evolution |
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Rank |
2020 |
2024 |
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1 |
China |
China |
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2 |
Azerbaijan |
Vietnam |
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3 |
Indonesia |
UnitedStates |
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4 |
India |
Indonesia |
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5 |
Vietnam |
Armenia |
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6 |
Iran |
Iran |
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7 |
Georgia |
Thailand |
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8 |
Côted’Ivoire |
India |
|
9 |
Qatar |
Georgia |
|
10 |
Russia |
Uzbekistan |
- 2020 Rank: 4th position (Due to pandemic-driven digitization).
- 2024 Rank: 8th position (Post-pandemic slowdown in digital adoption).
India made significant strides in:
- Mobile internet access
- Digital payments (UPI adoption)
- Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) for inclusion
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Digital growth slowed post-pandemic as people resumed normal activities.
- A clear trend impacting India is the post-pandemic slowdown in global digital growth.
- Between 2016 and 2019, the report notes an average digital compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.3 percent across all countries.
- However, between 2020 and 2023, this growth decelerated to just 2.4 percent CAGR.
- In India, despite meaningful strides in bridging the mobile internet gap, digital growth has tapered off as people returned to work or resumed outdoor activities. India’s Digital Future and Challenges
- India is a major data hub and could become the world’s top data consumer by 2028.
- Need for improving data quality to enhance AI training models.
- Bridging language barriers in AI training is crucial.
- India and the EU are expected to play a critical regulatory role in AI governance.
- However, not just quantity, the quality of data is essential, and India has considerable room for improvement, especially in training algorithms across multiple languages.
- Also, advancements in utilising data for DPI applications could help India establish global leadership.
- As the US pulls back from regulating AI and other technologies, the regulatory role of countries like India (and the European Union) will be critical in maintaining sensible guardrails for global AI deployment, social media, and digital developments.
Practice Questions for Prelims:
1. With reference to digital transformation in India, arrange the following events in chronological order:
- Introduction of Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
- Digital Intelligence Index 2020 ranking release.
- Aadhaar-based digital authentication system.
- Digital Intelligence Index 2024 ranking release.
