India ranks 52nd on digital quality of life, e-infra weakest spot: Report

India stands at the 52nd position, up from 59th last year, when it comes to maintaining the overall digital quality of life, a report showed on Monday. 

The Digital Quality of Life (DQL) Index by cyber-security firm Surfshark is an annual study that ranks 121 countries by their digital wellbeing based on 5 core pillars -- internet quality, internet affordability, e-security, e-infrastructure and e-government. 

The fifth DQL study shows India moving seven points up this year and the increase is largely due to the country’s surge in internet quality, for which it now ranks 16th. As per the findings, the country’s internet quality is 36% higher than the global average.  

Multiple factors affect the speed and quality of your internet connection. Transfer technology, location, the number of shared connection and the device used are only some of these factors.  

According to the report, the country’s mobile internet speed (74 Mbps) has soared by 297% since last year, while fixed internet speed (76 Mbps) has improved by 16%.  

The internet is affordable in India compared to other countries, as the report noted that Indians have to work 1 hour 48 minutes a month to afford fixed broadband internet — but this is 6 times more than in Romania, which has the world’s most affordable fixed internet. 

The findings however showed that the country faced challenges in e-infrastructure, ranking (91st), which remained the weakest spot and would need to improve by 37% to match the best-ranking country (Sweden). As for the remaining pillars, India ranks 28th in internet affordability, 35th in e-government, and 66th in e-security,” the findings showed. 

The e-security pillar measures how well a country is prepared to counter cybercrime, as well as how advanced a country’s data protection laws are. In this pillar, India outperforms Bangladesh (85th) and China (79th). However, in the global context, India is unprepared to fight against cybercrime, and the country has very low data protection laws, the study showed. 

The findings also showed that in its overall DQL, India continues to lag behind China (44th spot), Brazil (49th spot) and Thailand (51st) globally. In Asia, India takes 13th place, with Singapore the leader in the region. 

“In many nations, 'digital quality of life' has merged into the broader concept of overall 'quality of life'. There’s no other way to look at it now that so many daily activities, including work, education, and leisure, are done online,” said Gabriele Racaityte-Krasauske, Surfshark's spokeswoman. 

“That’s why it’s crucial to pinpoint the areas in which a nation's digital quality of life thrives and where attention is needed, which is the precise purpose of the DQL Index”, she added. 

The report added that countries that invest in improving their e-government are most likely to improve their whole DQL index.