India still lags behind China on overall digital quality of life globally

New Delhi: When it comes to maintaining the overall digital quality of life, India at 52nd position still lags behind China (44th spot) globally, a report showed on Monday.

The Digital Quality of Life (DQL) Index by cyber-security company 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 5th DQL study ranks India 52nd in the world, up from 59th last year.

The increase is largely due to the country’s surge in internet quality, for which it now ranks 16th.

“However, the country faced challenges in e-infrastructure, ranking 91st. As for the remaining pillars, India ranks 28th in internet affordability, 35th in e-government, and 66th in e-security,” the findings showed.

In Asia, India takes 13th place, with Singapore the leader in the region.

India’s internet quality is 36 per cent higher than the global average and ranks 16th in the world.

India’s mobile internet speed (74 Mbps) has soared by 297 per cent since last year, while fixed internet speed (76 Mbps) has improved by 16 per cent, according to the report.

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.

“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 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).

But in the global context, India is unprepared to fight against cybercrime, and the country has very low data protection laws, the study showed.

IANS