Some interesting stuff related to India I spotted on the interwebs lately, one a BusinessWeek article that tracks the massive increase in the already huge number of people in rural India that are accessing the web via mobile (such as through services like Nokia’s MeraNokia) and the consequent competition amongst service-providers and vendors. Service-based mobiles are empowering farmers and fishermen by giving them valuable access to information related to the weather and crop pricing (among other things), slowly lifting them out of the poverty that they have been accustomed to for years, and they form a huge percentage of the market that is taking to mobiles in a big way. There is also a mention of how India will need to shift to low-rate unlimited data plans, which was responsible for a huge market shift in the US in 2007. An excerpt:
The rush to get into services cannot be explained by the need to make money, says Gupta, but to increase sales of core offerings. According to Simon Beresford-Wylie, CEO, Nokia-Siemens Networks, the “business of pipes”, i.e., plain vanilla products, will exceed $1.2 trillion (Rs 60 lakh crore) this year globally. The current estimate of $100 billion (Rs 5 lakh crore) in mobile services annually is a drop in this ocean but it is not a number to be scoffed at, particularly since India is expected to lead the services revolution.
Second, a summary of key internet statistics from Trendsspotting:
Trendsspotting Handbook of Online India
One Size Fits One 