Department of Telecom, Ministry of Communications and Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) have signed a MoU to develop a Broadband Readiness Index (BRI) for Indian States and Union Territories (UT).
This index will appraise the condition of the underlying digital infrastructure and related factors at the State/UT level.
The index will include indicators such as percentage of households using computers/ laptops with internet connection, percentage of households with fixed broadband connection, internet users as a percentage of the population, smartphones density, percentage of households with at least one digitally literate member, etc.
In the spirit of competitive federalism, the index will encourage states to cross learn and jointly participate in achieving the overall objective of digital inclusion and development in India.
