India ranks 131 on global index of ICT access: Report

India has been ranked a low 131 out of 167 nations on a global index that measures the level of information and communication technology access, even as the number of households with Internet and computer has increased in the country over the last five years.

UN International Telecommunications Union's flagship annual Measuring the Information Society Report said that globally 3.2 billion people are now online, representing 43.4 per cent of the world's population, while mobile-cellular subscriptions have reached almost 7.1 billion worldwide, with over 95 per cent of the global population now covered by a mobile-cellular signal.

The report also notes that the 167 economies included in the ITU's ICT Development Index (IDI) improved their IDI values between 2010 and 2015 - meaning that levels of information and communication technology (ICT) access, use and skills continue to improve all around the world.

India is ranked 131st in the IDI 2015 rank, dropping six notches from the IDI rank in 2010.

The report said the Asia-Pacific is the most diverse region in terms of ICT development, reflecting stark differences in levels of economic development.

Six economies in the region - including the South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan - have IDI rankings in the top twenty of the global distribution.

However, the region also includes ten of the Index's least connected countries, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

South Korea is ranked at the top of IDI which is a composite measurement that ranks 167 countries according to their level of ICT access, use and skills.

South Korea is closely followed by Denmark and Iceland, in second and third place.

The IDI top 30 ranking includes countries from Europe and high-income nations from other regions including Australia, Bahrain, Barbados, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, Macao, New Zealand, Singapore and the United States.

The report however noted that India's mobile-cellular telephone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants was 74.48 in 2014 growing from 62.4 in 2010.

The percentage of households with computer in India was 13 per cent in 2014, more than doubling from 6. 1 per cent in 2010, while the percentage of households with Internet access was 15.33, growing three-fold from 4.2 in 2010.

Further the percentage of individuals using the Internet is grew to 18 per cent in 2014 from 7.5 per cent in 2010 in the country.

-PTI