Internetworked_Ready_India(Stanford_Scholarship_Essay)

The growth rate of internet penetration in India is staggering. India's population is over 1.1billion, but only about 81million, 7.1 percent of the total population are online. Even if India reaches only 50% saturation over the next several years, we will have more than 500million new internet consumers. Compare this to about 230 million internet users in US; we can see the gigantic potential. Access to internet and need to use it are the two key factors that will decide if India reaches the 500million statistic. India's state-owned telecom operator, BSNL, as a part of its rural broadband program aims to connect 178000 villages in the near future. This is a major breakthrough in providing internet access to millions of Indian public. Increasing the need to use internet can be achieved by building applications targeted at specific areas. One such success story is the ITC’s e-choupal, an interactive web based initiative, targeted at helping farmers use technology solutions to enhance farm productivity. In the similar lines, I plan to build an ecommerce platform that would enable manufacturers to sell products online. The benefits of such a platform are increased customer base for manufacturers, wider selection for consumers, disintermediation and the ability to operate all day, every day. This kind of attraction to encourage users to go online can be extended to other areas such as e-government, healthcare, transportation and biometrics. The list is endless. Building these platforms will make India “Internetworked ready”, enabling users to increase the extract value of the internet. Increased use of technology and online services will increase efficiency of India thereby enhancing its' competitiveness or economic prowess.