Measuring access and usage of telecommunication services in India: Towards construction of a comprehensive index

The importance of the telecommunication sector in fostering economic development in the present informational age can never be undermined. Regional grouping of countries suggests a stark disparity in the development of telecom infrastructure between developed and developing countries. Even within a country, inter-state variation is no exception. To measure the progress of access and usage of telecom services in India, this paper presents a new index of telecommunication development to highlights the changing scenario of such infrastructure development across major Indian states. ‘Use’ (demand side) and ‘Access’ (supply side) dimensions are taken into consideration to measure this comprehensive index. Individual indicators of use and access dimensions are compiled from Telecom Statistics in India. Empirical evidence across Indian states suggests that southern states are consistently performed well in the infrastructure of telecommunication, whereas the infrastructure is found to be poor in eastern states during the period of study, 2011–2017.