Model Gujarat's urban lag? 41% households have internet access; all-India average 49%

By Rajiv Shah
Gujarat may be claiming to have provided the widest internet coverage compared to the rest of India through the state-sponsored Gujarat State Wide Area Network (GSWAN). However, a recent Government of India survey shows that access to internet in the state’s urban areas is just to 41.3 per cent of its households, which is far below the national average of 48.7 per cent.
The neighbouring Maharashtra’s urban areas are way ahead of Gujarat with 64.6 per cent households having internet access. Similarly, in urban Kerala, 62.1 per cent households have internet access. Largely urban areas, Delhi’s 48.5 per cent, Goa’s 52.6 per cent, and Chandigarh’s 60.2 per cent have internet access.
The National Sample Survey (NSS) report, “Education in India”, based on samples taken in 2014, pointing towards a huge urban-rural internet divide across India, says, “Among the selected states, Chhattisgarh had the lowest percentage (2.5 per cent) of households having access to internet facility.”
As against this, the NSS report says, “In Kerala, more than half of the rural households had internet access.” While the national average is 16.1 per cent, 17.1 per cent rural households of Gujarat have internet access.
If one leaves aside household access to internet, the question still remains: How computer literate is "model" Gujarat's population? The NSS data show that just about 24.3 per cent of Gujarat's urban population in the age group 14 plus can use internet to send emails, which is worse than the all-India average of 25.4 per cent.

There are ten states which perform better than Gujarat -- Himachal Pradesh (37.9 per cent), Uttarakhand (33.2 per cent), Maharashtra (33.1 per cent), Kerala (32.5 per cent), Punjab (29.2 per cent), Haryana (29 per cent), Karnataka (28 per cent), Telangana (27 per cent), Assam (26 per cent), and Tamil nadu (25.7 per cent).
A further detail suggests that Gujarat's 17.5 per cent urban females are able to use internet to send emails, which is again worse than the national average of 19.3 per cent. Then, just about 3.8 per cent of Gujarat's rural females are able to use internet to send emails, which is worse than the all-India average of 3.9 per cent.
Published in March 2016, the NSS survey also reveals that, in Gujarat, 14.6 per cent people (urban plus rural) above 14 years of age can use internet in order to send emails. While this a slightly better than the all-India average of 12.4 per cent, it is worse than as many as nine out of 21 major Indian states.
If Kerala, with 27.2 per cent of the people in the age-group 14 plus able to use internet to send email, tops among major Indian states, Maharashtra with 20.4 per cent comes next, followed by Tamil Nadu 18.8 per cent, Himachal Pradesh 18.3 per cent, Punjab 17.9 per cent, Uttarakhand 16.1 per cent, Telangana 15.5 per cent, Haryana 15.4 per cent, and Karnataka 15 per cent.
Further, in the age-group 14-29, 34.6 per cent of the people are able to operate a computer, as against 27.8 per cent in the country as a whole. This is worse than seven major states -- Kerala (77.3 per cent), Tamil Nadu (49.6 per cent), Himachal Pradesh (45.5 per cent), Punjab (45 per cent), Maharashtra (40.1 per cent), Haryana (36.3 per cent), and Karnataka (35.5 per cent).

Comments

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Was Netaji forced to alter face, die in obscurity in USSR in 1975? Was he so meek?

By Rajiv Shah This should sound almost hilarious. Not only did Subhas Chandra Bose not die in a plane crash in Taipei, nor was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba who reportedly passed away on 16 September 1985 in Ayodhya, but we are now told that he actually died in 1975—date unknown—“in oblivion” somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Which city? Moscow? No one seems to know.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan* “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

Authoritarian destruction of the public sphere in Ecuador: Trumpism in action?

By Pilar Troya Fernández The situation in Ecuador under Daniel Noboa's government is one of authoritarianism advancing on several fronts simultaneously to consolidate neoliberalism and total submission to the US international agenda. These are not isolated measures, but rather a coordinated strategy that combines job insecurity, the dismantling of the welfare state, unrestricted access to mining, the continuation of oil exploitation without environmental considerations, the centralization of power through the financial suffocation of local governments, and the systematic criminalization of all forms of opposition and popular organization.

The golden crop: How turmeric is transforming women's lives in tribal India

By Vikas Meshram* When the lush green fields of turmeric sway in the tribal belt of southern Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat, it is not merely a spice crop — it is the golden glow of self-reliance. In villages where even basic spices once had to be bought from the market, the very soil today is yielding a prosperity that has transformed the lives of thousands of families. At the heart of this transformation is the initiative of Vaagdhara, which has linked turmeric with livelihoods, nutrition, and village self-governance — gram swaraj.

Echoes of Vietnam and Chile: The devastating cost of the I-A Axis in Iran

By Ram Puniyani The recent joint military actions by Israel and the United States against Iran have been devastating. Like all wars, this conflict is brutal to its core, leaving a trail of human suffering in its wake. The stated pretext for this aggression—the brutality of the Ayatollah Khamenei regime and its nuclear ambitions—clashes sharply with the reality of the diplomatic landscape. Iran had expressed a willingness to remain at the negotiating table, signaling a readiness to concede points emerging from dialogue.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

The price of silence: Why Modi won’t follow Shastri, appeal for sacrifice

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey* In 1965, as India grappled with war and a crippling food crisis, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri faced a United States that used wheat shipments under the PL-480 agreement as a lever to dictate Indian foreign policy. Shastri’s response remains legendary: he appealed to the nation to skip one meal a day. Millions of middle-class households complied, choosing temporary hunger over the sacrifice of national dignity. Today, India faces a modern equivalent in the energy sector, yet the leadership’s response stands in stark contrast to that era of self-reliance.

False claim? What Venezuela is witnessing is not surrender but a tactical retreat

By Manolo De Los Santos The early morning hours of January 3, 2026, marked an inflection point in Venezuela and Latin America’s centuries-long struggle for self-determination and independence. Operation Absolute Resolve, ordered by the Trump administration, constituted the most brutal and direct military assault on a sovereign state in the region in recent memory. In a shocking operation that left hundreds dead, President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores were illegally kidnapped from Venezuelan soil and transported to the United States, where they now face fabricated charges in a New York federal detention facility. In the two months since this act of war, a torrent of speculation has emerged from so-called experts and pundits across the political spectrum. This has followed three main lines: One . The operation’s success indicated treason at the highest levels of the Bolivarian Revolution. Two . Acting President Delcy Rodríguez and the remaining leadership have abandone...

Search This Blog