New Delhi

India now ranks as the third largest digitalised country among the G20 nations after US and China, when compared by the aggregate level of digitalisation, a new report showed on Friday, stressing that India’s global ranking significantly improves when the full spectrum and scale of digitalisation is taken into account.

Digitalisation has made dramatic progress but the way it is being measured globally has not.

Most global indices do not completely capture the path of digitalisation adopted by developing countries, according to the ‘State of India’s Digital Economy (SIDE) 2024’ report by the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), and the global consumer internet group Prosus.

Debjani Ghosh, President, Nasscom said while releasing the report that the world does not still truly get how technology has weaved itself into the daily life of Indians, which to me, is the real digital economy. India is truly a digital native country, not just the young that are born to technology, but even the older population take to technology.

When thought of the digital economy of India, it should be thought in terms of the lens of impact and livelihoods, she added. Using a new approach called the CHIPS (connect–harness–innovate–protect–sustain) framework, the report benchmarked the scale and depth of India’s digital transformation with respect to G20 countries as well as for Indian states and union territories.

This approach is better suited for developing countries like India as it captures both the opportunities and risks created by digitalisation.