India is one of the fastest growing markets for Internet and digital services. With an impressive growth rate of 11% and over 462 million Internet users, India is now catching the eyes of global firms who wish to cash in the growing market. In the next few decades, this Internet economy will become one of the most significant contributors to the country’s income and will generate an exorbitant amount of jobs. Thus, this Internet-based business module will contribute towards the whole economic ecosystem of the country.

Digital Economy of India



Emerging as a global player in almost all sectors, India has also shown promise in the field of digital technologies with impressive numbers and proved leadership. The new leadership in the political domain has opened up new avenues for companies in this domain from all the around. The current government has brought fresh schemes which have fuelled the digital economy and converted it into a major growth enabler. The Digital India Programme has been mentioned all around the world as a resounding nod to the digital opportunities. These novel programmes have enabled the country to become one of the biggest income opportunities for digital companies around the world.

The growth of the digital economy has impacted certain areas which have seen tremendous augmentation in the past few areas. These areas include:

  • Digital Payments:Government initiatives such as Demonetization have paved the way for digital payments all around the country. Multiple digital wallets saw a massive rise in their user base, which include Paytm, Airtel Payments Bank, Mobikwik, and Freecharge. Apart from private wallets, the government itself has invested heavily in digital payments with its e-wallet application BHIM.

  • Governance and Services on Demand: The ease of access of government services such as Passport, Aadhaar, E-Visa and many more have created a digital bridge between the citizens and the government.

  • Connectivity: The increase in the number of users has also led to a huge demand in the connectivity industry. Be it internet service providers or digital applications, both the fronts have seen tremendous growth, leading to excessive economic results.


Multiple sectors in the country are benefiting from the digital economy, including health, education, infrastructure and many more. This a good sign as it can end up uplifting the whole economy and the digital revolution can end up boosting the economy more than the other prominent revolutions.

Key Trends in the Digital Progress of India



Features such as local language computing, frugal innovation, and open source software are the next leg of digital progression in countries such as India. These areas showcase the potential of India and the need to strengthen infrastructure and train resources. The digital economy has its own set of challenges, some of which are listed below:


  • Connectivity:Slow and delayed infrastructure is the biggest hurdle faced by the growing digital revolution. The spectrum availability is comparatively lower than most developed countries. There needs to be an action plan to convert the current infrastructure to state of the art.

  • IT Literacy:The current state of IT literacy in India is below par which is extremely necessary for the digital services to stay in the race with the masses.

  • Security: As the dependency on data increases, security is a big concern. Data vulnerability and phishing attacks are becoming huge issues which can come at the cost of critical data.



There are a lot of innovative startups that are contributing towards the development of the digital economy in the country. We have amassed a list of few of them below:


  • Hike:Hike Messenger is an Indian born cross-platform messaging service for the masses with smartphones. Starting as a messaging service, Hike has transformed into an E-wallet to capture the digital payments user base as well.

  • Exotel:A cloud telephony company in Bangalore, Exotel provides services including virtual phone numbers and telephony applications which eliminates the need for call centers, bringing down organizational cost. The organization boasts of clients such as UBER, Flipkart, Ola, and Redbus.

  • Zoom Car: India’s own car-sharing startup Zoomcar has tapped the 3 billion USD car rental market. The company raised serious funding in its original funding rounds and operates in multiple metro cities.

  • Hackr.io: Hackr.io recommends the best online programming and design courses and tutorials for easier access and online learning. The most prominent factor of the website is that all the tutorials are submitted and voted by the users in the programming community. These courses cover a wide variety of sectors, including Android development, AWS, AI and many other programming languages. Programming is the new literacy and Hackr.io is on the mission to help programmers and designers learn better.



Innovative start-ups such as the ones mentioned above are fueling the growth of the digital revolution in India. To build on the revolution, it is important to understand the need for the improvement of public services through fin-tech technologies. The intent should be to deliver advanced digital solutions for the fascinating problems of the country that can make a huge difference to the economy.
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