Just 25% adults use Internet in India: Pew survey
San Francisco, June 20 : Despite talk of Digital India, only one-in-four in the country reported using the Internet in 2017, which is among the lowest in the world, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center.
South Korea stands out as the most heavily connected society, with 96 per cent of adults reporting Internet use, showed the the survey conducted in 37 countries.
While majorities use the Internet in much of the world, sub-Saharan Africa and India has much to catch up with, according to the results released on Tuesday
Smartphone ownership among adults in India went up from 12 per cent in 2013 to 22 per cent in 2017, while social media use went up from eight to 20 per cent during the same period.
That means 78 per cent of adults in India do not own a smartphone and a whopping 80 per cent of the population in the country have no clues about Facebook or Twitter.
While the gap in Internet use between emerging and advanced economies has narrowed in recent years, there are still large swaths of the world where significant numbers of citizens do not use the Internet, the study said.
Internet penetration rates -- as measured by Internet use or smartphone ownership -- remain high in North America and much of Europe, as well as in parts of the Asia-Pacific.
Yet, others are not far behind. In Australia, the Netherlands, Sweden, Canada, the US, Israel, the UK, Germany, France and Spain, roughly nine-in-ten report Internet use.
Regionally, sub-Saharan Africa is one of the least wired parts of the globe.
However, among people who use the Internet, those in developing countries often turn out to be more likely than their counterparts in advanced economies to network via platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
In 2015-16, roughly four-in-ten adults across the emerging nations surveyed said they used social networking sites.
As of 2017, 53 per cent use social media. Over the same period, social media use has been generally level in many of the advanced economies surveyed.
The report also showed that there has been a steady increase in Internet use over the past five years among the 19 emerging and developing economies surveyed.
In 2013, only 16 per cent adults in India reported using the Internet. The percentage of adults using the Internet in India went up to 25 per cent in 2017.
Between 2013 and 2014, a median of 42 per cent across the emerging and developing economies said they accessed the Internet at least occasionally or owned a smartphone.
By 2017, a median of 64 per cent were online. Meanwhile, Internet use among the 17 advanced economies surveyed has remained relatively flat, with a median of 87 per cent across these nations using the internet at least occasionally in 2017, similar to the 86 per cent who said this in 2015 or 2016.
Similarly, in 2013-14, about a quarter of people in emerging and developing economies reported owning a smartphone.
By 2017, that share had risen to 42 per cent. Among the advanced economies, 72 per cent report owning a smartphone in 2017, the same rate as in 2015-16.
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Gujarat: Mevani demands collector’s suspension over ‘anti-Dalit’ remark; IAS officer rejects charge
Mahnisagar, Oct 30: Gujarat Congress MLA Jignesh Mevani on Wednesday demanded the suspension of Mahisagar District Collector Neha Kumari, accusing her of making anti-Dalit comments, a charge the bureaucrat rejected.
Mevani’s demand comes a week after he sought similar action against senior IPS officer Rajkumar Pandian for allegedly misbehaving with him and one of his party colleagues.
Mevani targeted Kumari citing a purported video in which she was heard saying that 90 per cent of cases registered under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, or the Atrocities Act, are used for blackmailing.
The IAS officer termed the lawmaker’s claims “baseless” and an unsuccessful attempt to get political mileage.
Mevani visited Lunawada, the district headquarters, and demanded that an FIR be registered against the collector under the Atrocities Act and that she was suspended over her “insensitive” remarks and “unparliamentary” words.
When one Vijay Parmar went to meet the collector with his grievance at the SWAGAT programme on October 23, she used “unparliamentary” words against him and also insulted the lawyer community by saying they should be “slapped with slippers”, the Vadgam MLA told reporters.
SWAGAT is an initiative of the Gujarat government for the redressal of people’s grievances.
According to Mevani, the collector’s claim that 90 per cent of cases under the Atrocities Act are misused for blackmailing is an insult to the SC and ST communities and amounts to an offence under the Atrocities Act and Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
“We demand Kumari's suspension and that a case be registered against her,” he said.
The district collector called the MLA’s allegations a “political stunt”.
“The man whom the MLA called poor, innocent young friend (Vijay Parmar) has a police case against him, and his brother has more than one case of rape, kidnapping and assault against him,” Kumari said, adding that they keep visiting the collector’s office with grievances.
At the SWAGAT programme on October 23, he pressured the collector to file a case against police officers. When the collector told him that she did not have the power to file a case and that he should approach the superintendent of police (SP) or the court, he continued to pester her over his issue, she said.
He even threatened the officers and told the collector that she was a Brahmin and he would let her know what “section 4 of the Atrocities Act entailed”, she said.
“You can understand the direction in which this MLA wants to take law and order by keeping a person with a criminal history along with him even when the state government is sensitive about children and women,” she said.
The collector said that the way Vijay Parmar is “blackmailing” government employees in the name of the Atrocities Act is not at all right. “The MLA's support to such people makes it difficult for the real complainants and the real victims to get justice,” she said.
Last week, Congress leaders and Dalit community members gathered outside the office of the Director General of Police in the state capital Gandhinagar demanding the suspension of senior IPS officer Rajkumar Pandian over his alleged misbehaviour with Mevani and his party colleague.
