While the political scenario and regulatory framework in India has improved, some key concerns remain, WEF's report said.
India slipped two places on World Economic Forum's network readiness index in 2016, its Global Information technology Report 2016, showed. The list which tabled countries according to their Network Readiness Index, WEF says, "accesses the factors, policies and institutions that enable a country to fully leverage information and communication technologies (ICT) for increased competitiveness and well-being."
The list that was topped by Singapore, and followed by Finland and Sweden, saw India at rank 91 out of 139 countries, in 2016. This is despite the government's push and initiatives to improve Internet connectivity in the country and to take network connectivity to the masses.
Digital India has been one of the flagship programmes under the Narendra Modi government, with the aim to make Internet and mobile connectivity affordable and accessible.
Singapore, on the top of the list, was assigned a value of 6.0, the highest on the list, while India's network connectivity value was 3.8 on a scale of 2.20 and 6.04, World Economic Forum data showed.
World Economic Forum said, "India's absolute score changed only marginally in the recent years, but the drop can be attributed to in part to the fact that other countries are moving ahead at higher speeds."
Source: World Economic Forum
The Forum's report credited the country for improvements in political and regulatory environment (78th, up four places), and in its business environment (110th rank, up five places) but some key problem area remain which led to its rank slipping to number 91.
This includes, according to the report, a lack of infrastructure (114th), low levels of skilled population (101st), low individual usage (120th), illiteracy (95th rank), less youth enrolled in secondary education (103rd).
Apart from this, the WEF report also highlighted low network connectivity, despite the government's efforts under Digital India, for the rank.
Despite affordability being one of the strengths of the Indian connectivity ecosystem, ranking 8th in 2016, the report says, only 15 out of 100 households have access to the Internet and there are only 5.5 mobile subscriptions for ever 100 people.
Source: World Economic Forum
A deep divide between urban and rural areas is also remains a key concern.
"India’s performance in terms of providing online services and allowing e-participation has so far been in line with that of peer countries, but far from the global best (57th and 40th, respectively)," the report said.
Source: World Economic Forum
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