The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), Government of India, has published the data for the 79th Round Comprehensive Annual Modular Survey (CAMS), from 2022-23.

The survey tries to measure different parameters at both household and individual level. Access to phones, ability to use the internet for various tasks, level of education completed, trainings taken are assessed among a host of other parameters by the survey across the country. The complete data from the survey in the form of csv files has been added to this dataset.

In this analysis we look at what the survey found with respect to access to technology among households as well as individuals. At the individual level we also see what the survey found when it comes to access to the internet as well as the ability of people to conduct various tasks using the internet. The data is available at individual district level, and we compare the results for the seven major cities – Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and Kolkata. Data for Hyderabad was poor with only 80 samples and we had to exclude the city.

Access to Tech in Households

When it comes to access to technology in the form of possession of gadgets, households across the country as well as the cities show wide variance depending on the type of gadgets. The survey tries to find out the the number of mobile phones possessed (including smartphones), television sets and number of desktops, laptops or tablets.

What we find is that, while more than 95% of the households across the country have at least one mobile phone, the number drops to 67% for television sets and less than 12% when it comes to computers.

Cities show a similar trend, with high mobile phone possession rate, followed by television and then computers. However, close to 50% of the households in the southern cities – Bengaluru and Chennai – have at least one computer which makes them stand well apart from the rest of the country as well as other cities.

The difference is seen even with televisions where more than 80% of households in all the cities have a television set as against 67% for the country.

Access to Tech in Adults

While the above numbers were for households, individuals show a similar trend. Access to mobile phones is high among individuals of age over 15. This also allows access to the Internet for those with smartphones. However, those who can operate a computer in the form of desktop, laptop or tablet is much lower.

Even among cities, the southern cities – Bengaluru and Chennai – perform well when it comes to ability to use computers. However, Mumbai has the highest access to internet and marginally higher ability to use computers among the cities. Kolkata and Delhi bring up the rear with computers, while in Chennai the usage of mobile phones as well as the internet was lowest among the cities.

Usage of Internet for Different Purposes

While being able to use the internet is one thing, what people can use it for is a better estimate of the skills among the people. Those surveyed were asked if they can use the internet for only communication and entertainment (using social media, YouTube and messaging apps, for example), or if they can also use it to find information by searching the internet.

At the national level, while 55% of those who can use the internet could also search for information, 42% could use it only for communication and entertainment. In cities, this proportion is much better, especially in Bengaluru, Delhi and Pune where 75% or more respondents could use the internet to find information along with communication and entertainment.

The outlier is Mumbai where despite a high ability to use the internet, only 40% of the users could find information, while the rest could only use it for communication and entertainment.

While messaging apps are important, the survey tried to find out the ability of people to send and receive emails. It also looked at the ability to conduct banking transactions online like sending and receiving money.

At the national level, more people who use the internet have the skills to send and receive emails than to do banking transactions like sending and receiving money. This trend is reversed in the southern cities of Bengaluru and Chennai where the percentage of those who can send and receive emails as well money is not only the highest among the cities, but more people know how to send and receive money than emails, which isn’t the case with other cities.

The difference is stark in Kolkata where almost 50% more internet users can work with emails than money transactions. One of the reasons for the difference in money transactions across cities could be the usage of UPI apps and how widespread it is in each city. While pure banking transactions like logging into one’s bank account might not be very common, UPI apps have bridged the gap to make banking transactions easier.

With the explosion of messaging apps and social media there is a vast amount of information that people are exposed to. People also act as active agents who help transmit information through forwarding and sharing through messaging platforms and social media. The survey tried to find out what percentage of people know how to send media in the form of video, images and audio through messaging apps etc.

While the amount of information that people are exposed to has gone up, the amount of misinformation they are exposed to has also gone up rapidly. How do people deal with misinformation? Can they make out the difference between authentic and fake information? The survey asked this question, and looked at the ability to verify the reliability of information through various means. The survey defines this ability as “Includes skills like viewing authentic websites, checking the date of published content, authenticity of address bar of the website, authenticity of information circulated through various social media platforms etc.”

What they found is that across the country as well as cities, a lot more people know how to send media than verify the authenticity of information. While only 41% of those at the national level can send media, this percentage shoots up to at least 60% in the cities.

While less than 10% of those surveyed can verify the reliability of information at the national level, cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai do much better with at least 25% or more people having this skill. However, in all cities, less than half those who know how to send media know how to verify the reliability of information. While the ability to send media is always a necessary skill, it is important that people are skilled enough to verify the authenticity of what they receive and do not fall prey to misinformation.

In summary, the availability of smartphones has made the internet easily accessible to more and more people, with more than 50% of the country using the internet for various purposes. While a large chunk of internet users use it only for communication and entertainment, which is by itself a good, the majority can actually use the internet to find information.

In cities, usage of mobiles, internet and the general skill level of using the internet is expectedly higher than the national average. However, the southern cities show better access to technology as well as technical skills when compared to the other cities.