Gurgaon Beats Bangalore in Internet Race

By siliconindia  |  Thursday, 10 May 2012, 12:51 Hrs


internet penetration

Bangalore: Gurgaon, the industrial and financial centre of Haryana, shows a tremendous growth in the number of internet users. Gurgaon comes ahead of India’s known IT centers like Bangalore and Hyderabad in the number households with internet connection. As per the 2011 census, 20.9 percent of households in Gurgaon have access to internet while the national average is just 10 percent.

The census shows that out of 3,20,000 households in Gurgaon, 1,02,000 households have computers and more than 67,000 have internet connection. The growth of internet users in Gurgaon is a possible indication of the internet revelation that can happen in the distant future of India.

Gurgaon has been facing rapid development in the past 15 years. A very good number of multinational companies have located their business here and it has increased the number of techies and professionals in the city.

 As TOI reports, Ibrahim Ahmed of Cyber Media, a research firm said "Most residents are employed in the IT and telecom companies and this explains the rising number of internet users." “Realtors are partnering Net service providers to offer free installation in newly built flats," Ahmad added. This indicates the role of housing societies in increasing the number of household internet users.

Chandigarh comes at the top with 18.8 percentages in the list of internet penetration of states. NCT of Delhi takes the second place in the list with the percentage of 17.6. Goa with 12.7 percentages holds the third place and Kerala with 6.3 falls to the fourth position in the internet penetration. Bihar and Tripura are at the very bottom of the list.

Gurgaon is making its development faster with the highest number of household internet connection. The city has the third highest per capita income in the country after Chandigarh and Mumbai. The increasing internet penetration provides the city the hope of e-governance in the future. P C Meena, the deputy commissioner and head of district IT society said “We will like to strengthen our e-governance infrastructure and introduce new internet-based initiatives," TOI quotes.

Gurgaon lights the lamp for the upcoming internet revolution in the country. The new projects of Bharat Broadband Network aiming at connecting 500 million users by 2020 can enrich our country’s internet usability and make the revolution closer.