The State of India’s Digital Economy (SIDE) 2024 presents a new approach to measure digitalisation. This approach is better suited for developing countries like India for three reasons. First, it proposes a much wider definition of digitalisation through its Connect-Harness-Innovate-Protect-Sustain (CHIPS) framework, capturing both the opportunities and risks created by digitalisation. Second, unlike global indices that focus entirely on the average user, SIDE 2024 recognises the scale of the network and depth of use of technology at the economy-wide level by proposing two separate indices – CHIPS (Economy) and CHIPS (User). Finally, while most global indices focus on both outcomes and inputs (enablers) of digitalisation – thus penalising developing countries twice, once for a low score on outcome and then again for a low score on inputs – CHIPS is almost entirely estimated using outcome indicators.
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