Internet access: Lack of means

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Against a target of achieving 175 million broadband connections by 2017, only 85.74 million have been achieved till December 2014. The broadband penetration in the country has been slow due to various reasons including infrastructure.

Currently, India is nowhere near meeting the target for a service which is considered almost a basic necessity in many developed countries. There is an urgent need to review present policies, the current state of implementation of building infrastructure required for penetration of broadband - the means and the supporting software/apps that will provide the content - the ends, according to telecom regulator TRAI in its recommendations on 'Delivering Broadband Quickly: What we need to do' which was released on Friday.

In terms of ICT access, ICT use and ICT skills India ranks 129th out of 166 countries below Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Bhutan and Kenya. India ranks 125th in the world for fixed broadband penetration, and some of our neighbours like Bhutan and Sri Lanka are ahead of us.