India inequality report 2022: digital divide

The digital divide in the access and usage of ICTs and the internet has also led to an exclusionary consequence in three sectors of utmost significance: education, health and finance. In a country plagued by high socioeconomic inequality, the digitalisation process cannot be posited as the panacea for the inherent challenges of the physical world. It becomes particularly problematic when half of the population neither has access to gadgets and the internet or the technological know-how to move to a digital environment. In such circumstances, the digitalisation process becomes unequal, favouring the digitally connected while excluding the rest, and in certain cases, exacerbating the already existing inequalities. India Inequality Report 2022 examines these inequalities.