The Indian Telecommunication

Industry

Submitted to:

Dr. Faheem Hussain

Submitted by:

Binny K. Babu,

Nithya P.C.

Shivalaxmi Arumugham

Computer Science Major

Table of Contents

Introduction

Telecom and ICT regulations/Acts in India

o The Indian Telegraph Act, 1885

o The Indian Wireless telegraphy Act, 1933, Act XVII of 1933

o Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Act 1997

Communication Convergence Bill 2001

o The Information Technology Act, 2000

o Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Rules, 2004

o Right to Information Act, 2005

Universal Service and the Status of 3A’s in Indian Telecom Industry

Telephone and Internet Connectivity

o Penetration rate

o Major Market players

Emerging Technologies

o 3G technologies:

o Mobile Number Portability

o WiMAX

Expected Changes in the Telecommunication Industry of India

Challenges/Problems identified

Recommendations

Conclusion

Works Cited

Introduction

India is an emerging Southeast Asian economy with a population of 1.15 billion people.

Despite of its population, it has a fast growing telecommunication industry, which contributes

8.5% to the Nation’s GDP (Amrit). As per the data by March 2010, the Indian

telecommunication is the third largest in the world, with a total network of 621 million network

connections. Moreover, the growth of the industry in the last few years is at the rate of 45%. The

country has undergone a lot of changes and development in the past and has turned out to be one

among the hubs of telecommunication industry. Liberalization of the market policies by the

Indian Government, the fair regulatory framework which offers “affordable” telecom services to

its customers all over the country, and the large number of consumer make the Indian

telecommunication industry successful (Department of Telecommunications). This paper

explores the present status of Indian Telecommunication Industry in terms of its growth in both

telecom and internet sectors. Also, the paper briefly talks about the issues with regulatory

policies and acts and identifies the challenges faced by the industry and hence concludes by

giving some recommendations for improvements.

Telecom and ICT regulations/Acts in India

The Indian Telegraph Act, 1885

The Indian Telegraph Act is the first act regarding telegraph services in India. This act

defined different terms related to telegraph and postal services. Most importantly it defined

“Universal service” and established Universal Service Obligation fund (USOF) in order to attain

the goals of universal service concept (Ministry of Communication and Information Technology,

1885).

The Indian Wireless telegraphy Act, 1933, Act XVII of 1933

This act was meant to manage the ownership of wireless telegraphy equipment. It

prohibits the possession of unlicensed telegraph equipment. Also, it defined a couple of technical

terms regarding wireless communication (Ministry of Communication and Information

Technology, 1993).

1

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Act 1997

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Act 1997 was for establishing the Indian

Telecom Regulatory Authority and gives them power to regulate the telecom services and to

analyze and solve the issues in the growth of telecommunication sector of India (Ministry of

Communication and Information Technology, 1997).

Communication Convergence Bill 2001:

Communication Convergence Bill 2001 was to improve different modes of

communication such as telecommunication, and multimedia, for setting up an independent

commission in order to regulate all communication systems, creation of an “Appellate Tribunal”

and to examine the issues related with all of the above (Ministry of Communication and

Information Technology, 2001).

The Information Technology Act, 2000

Main goal of the “The Information Technology Act, 2000” was to legitimize the

transactions which include the storage and exchange of electronic data and “electronic

commerce”. It enforces the usage of electronic data storage devices as alternatives for paper

based methods of storing information in government offices (Ministry of Communication and

Information Technology, 2000).

Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Rules, 2004

The rule after the 522 of the Indian Telegraph Rules, 1951 is modified to have the Indian

Telegraph (Amendment) Rules, 2004. It included some additional details about Universal

Service Obligation Fund. It defined terms such as “administrator of universal service obligation

fund,” “universal service provider,” “universal service obligation” and “village public

telephone.” It briefly talked about the criteria for the selection of universal service providers and

it is by a “bidding process” among the “eligible operators”. Afore mentioned “eligible operators”

includes Basic Service Operators, Cellular Mobile Service Providers and Unified Access

Services Licensees or any others mentioned by the Central Government. The act says that the

2

2

funds must be provided to the universal service providers in intervals (Ministry of

Communication and Information Technology, 2004).

Right to Information Act, 2005

This act allows any citizen in India to have the right to information about any government

department. In order to have access to information, the person has to submit an application to the

Central Public Information Officer (CPIO). If the person is not satisfied with the information

provided, he/she can file a petition against the CPIO within 30 days of receiving the reply

(Ministry of Communication and Information Technology).

In addition to above mentioned acts and rules, there are certain important regulations in the

telecom industry of India. The major and recent ones are for ensuring interconnection among the

service providers (The Telecommunication (broadcasting and cable services) Interconnection

regulations, 2010) (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, 2009, 2010 ), regulating broadband

connectivity and mobile number portability (Telecommunication Mobile Number Portability

(First and Second amendments) Regulations) (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, 2010).

Universal Service and the Status of 3A’s in Indian Telecom Industry

The telephone amendment act of 2002 has defined universal service as the service, which

can provide basic “telegraph” services to citizens of India in affordable and reasonable rates in

urban as well as rural areas. Later, in 2004, Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Rules appended the

mobile phone services and broadband connectivity to universal service in order to get support for

their expansion in connectivity in rural and distant areas of the country. USOF (Universal

Service Obligation Fund) is meant for meeting the objectives of Universal Service in the country.

Universal Service Levy (USL) is responsible for raising the resources for achieving the goals of

universal service fund and it is at 5% of the AGR (Adjusted Gross revenue) of the telecom

providers all over the country. This is charged as a license fee which is between 6% to 10%

means that every person engaged in telephone conversation is contributing to the Universal

Service Fund. Also, there are loans and subsidies for the service providers from the Central

3

2

Government to accomplish the objectives of universal service (Ministry of Communication and

Information Technology, 2002).

Apart from the general idea of how 3A’s (Availability, Affordability and Accessibility)

should work, India has its own obligations that they think is necessary for attaining the goal

universal service (Eric Lie, 2007).

Programs by USO Fund

Public as well as private telecom operators are in charge for implementing the USO

programs. Their activities mainly include:

a. Establishing and maintaining VPTs (Village Public Telephone)

b. Substituting the Village Public telephones working on Multi Access Radio Relay

Technology.

c. Provision of more telephones in rural areas in order to have at least one VPT for every

revenue village.

d. Introducing RDELs (household telephones) in the rural areas distant areas of the country.

e. Broadband connectivity in rural areas and government offices in rural areas.

f. Introducing new and advanced technologies and infrastructure in rural areas in order to

amplify the growth of telecommunication sector (Ministry of Communication and

Information Technology, 2002).

Status of implementation of the USO programs (3A)

Village Public Telephones:

As per the agreements with six Private Basic Service Operators(PBOS) like M/s BSNL,

RIL (Reliance), TTL & TTL (MH), Bharti (Airtel), HFCL and Shyam Telecom, they are the

ones who is responsible for the maintenance and implementation of the Village Public

Telephones(VPTs) in certain revenue villages according to the Census 1991. Also, as per the

Census of 2001, 96% of the revenue villages already have the VPTs (Ministry of

Communication and Information Technology).

4

New VPTs: There are 62,433 uncovered villages which needed to have the VPT facility

and BSNL will be providing the service with the help of subsidies from USOF according

the agreement with USOF in 2009.

Replacement of MARR based VPTs: Since the most of the VTPS (about 1, 86,872 of

them) were working on Multi Access Radio Relay (MARR) technology, which are not

working properly, will be replaced by advanced technology equipment in with the help of

subsidies from USOF. In addition to the above mentioned services, DoT is planning to

provide and have already shown little progress in RCP (Rural Community phone) and

RDELs (Rural Household Direct Exchange Lines (Ministry of Communication and

Information Technology).

Support to develop Infrastructure: There is a scheme from USOF to establish the

infrastructure for wireless or mobile services in the rural and remote areas of 27 states

where there are no such services by providing subsidies to the eligible service providers.

According to the agreement, three service providers will be sharing the infrastructure for

it.

Broadband in rural areas: Individual users and Government offices will be benefitted

from the 8, 61, 459 wire-line Broadband connections by 2014 in the rural areas of the

country. BSNL will be the responsible service provider for this (Ministry of

Communication and Information Technology).

Telephone and Internet Connectivity

Telephone and Internet Penetration

The number of telephone subscribers, including mobile and landline, in India is 706.37

million at the end of August 2010 with a growth rate of 2.61% (in July 2010, the number of

telephone subscribers was 688.38 million). Among the 706.37 million telephone subscribers, 670

million people use mobile phones, which contribute to 58.2% of the total population. The tele-

density, which is defined as the ration of phone per population, of India has reached 59.63 in

2010(TELECOM REGULATORY AUTHORITY OF INDIA, 2010). India plays a very

important role in Mobile market. In Asian Pacific market, India stands next to China and

5

2

together India and China contribute 1.04 billion of mobile customers to 4.15 billion mobile

customers of the world (Cellular News, 2009).

However, in comparison to all the technological facilities India has, it has a very low

Internet penetration rate. As per the statistics of ITU, there are only 81 million internet users in

India which is expected to rise up to 237 million in 2015 with an internet penetration rate of

6.9% (The Hindu, 2010) (Internet World Stats., 2010). The majority of the internet users in India

are from the large cities like Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai and Chennai, and the people who came

into the cities from the rural area of the country. Figure 1 shows the penetration rate and the

number of users (in million) in India from the year 2001 to 2010 except the year 2008. The 4th

column shows the rate of internet penetration in different years (Internet World Stats., 2010). In

the year 2006 and 2007, there was a decrease in the number of internet users, which has resulted

in less penetration rate. The decrease might be because of the economic turmoil that happened in

these years. In the graph, the number of internet users has skewed to the year 2001, which shows

that there is an increase in the number of internet users along with the increase in penetration

rate.

Figure 1. “Internet Penetration and the Number of User-India”

6

2

Market Player in Telecom Sector

The giant in the Indian telecom market is Bharti Airtel which has 21.06 % of market

share followed by Reliance with 17.2%. Vodafone holds the 3rd

highest market share of 16.97%

and Tata has 11.47% of the market share. Other major players in the market are Bharat Sanchar

Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Idea with 11.34% and 10.85% of the telecom industry market share

respectively (TELECOM REGULATORY AUTHORITY OF INDIA, 2010). Figure 2 represents

the Market share of Indian Service Providers in the year 2010.

Figure 2: Market Share of the Telephone Service Providers(August 2010) (TELECOM

REGULATORY AUTHORITY OF INDIA, 2010).

Service

Providers

Market

Share (%)

Bharti 21.06

Reliance 17.2

Vodafone 16.97

Tata 11.47

BSNL 11.34

Idea 10.85

Aircel 6.7

Unitech 1.36

Sistema 0.91

MTNL 0.79

Videocon 0.55

Loop 0.44

Stel 0.23

HFCL 0.14

Etisalat 0.01

7

2

Market players in ICT industry

The dominant player in Indian IT market is Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL)

which owns a market share of 56.76% followed by MTNL that has about 14.29%. Bharti Airtel

holds 8.07% of the market share which is close to the market share of Reliance Communication

Infra with 7.56%. Hathway Cable and Datacome Pvt. Ltd hold 1.94% of the share and the rest

11% belongs to a couple of other companies that are not as famous as the other major internet

service providers. Figure 3 shows the market share of different Internet service providers in India

in the month of March in 2010.

Figure 3: “Market Share of Internet Service Providers in India”

8

India is still in the process of growing as the biggest telecommunication industry in South

Asia. As a part of this growth, the country has already started replacing the existing technologies

with new technologies. The next section “Emerging Technologies in India” lists out the different

technologies that came into play in this decade.

Emerging Technologies in India

3G technologies

3G (third generation) technologies possess greater advancements over the wireless

technologies. They are mostly found in mobile phones connected to internet and provides voice

and video data calls, upload and downloading files and browse the net, and other broadband

applications like audio-video conferencing, e-commerce services, fax services, e-learning at a

faster rate(About.com, 2010). Comparing to the 2G technology, 3G provides higher downloading

capacity of 3 Mbps speed. 3G also has initiated the network operators and handset providers to

come up with new services and advanced mobile phones with new multimedia applications to

promote 3G technologies in 2007 (NaukriHub, 2010). With a fast internet, it is able to provide

high quality video conferencing and advanced audio and video stream and web browsing.

Although the 2G technology was very common in India, there was a huge gap between the tele

density in the urban and rural areas. Within a population of 1.08 in 2004, there were only 14

phones per 100 people. This number is comparatively higher in urban areas (teledensity is 31%)

than in rural (only 2%). Research finds that when 3G is used as a modem or a data card can

bridge the gap (India Telecom News, 2010). In order to provide 3G service in India, the service

providers need to get license. Some telecom service providers such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone,

Reliance, Tata and Idea were being issued with 3G licenses (Mahima, 2010). Among all the

providers of 3G, BSNL and MTNL, pioneers of 3G providers and Government Corporation in

the country, have 1.5 million of connections around India. Therefore, these providers are

forecasted to cover 25% of the market of 3G whereas Airtel, Reliance Communications and

Vodafone together would cover 43% of the whole market.

Marketing of 3G is very interesting in a way that the carriers provide better offers for the

schools and educational institutions. Recently, BSNL has introduced a new plan called BSNL

9

2

Yuva Rajasthan 3G Plan, which offers cheapest voice and video calls with the speed of 3.6 Mbps

along with many free national SMS. More importantly, they offer video calls with the rate of 10,

30 and 70 paisa per minute (Sanjay Bafna, 2010).

The study conducted by The Nielsen Company pointed out some main plans that will

help Indian 3G market to succeed. Similar to the US plan in the 3G penetration, India needs to

provide better user experience with their carrier’s service and suitable handsets. This brings the

users to experience 3G which certainly let consumers know how it would be like to use 3G. In

order to make it more sustainable, the service should have consumer relevant services.

Mobile Number Portability

Few years back, India started to think about the new technology for changing mobile

operators without changing the number. This number portability is first established in Haryana

and expected to reach the all over the country by January 2011. The cost for mobile number

porting will be INR 19. Policies are very essential to open up company’s willingness and

promote competition in the Mobile Number Portability market. Customers do not need to get

stuck with monotonous services because of the need to change the number. It will certainly make

an impact on the telecom provides by creating a fear of losing customers which would lead to

better services. This would be a situation where the telecom providers/carriers become more

aware of their services to their customers in order to not to lose them (Sanjay Bafna, 2010.

WiMAX

WiMAX, which is Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, provides access to

broadband internet thorough a wireless connection in a large area. There are 49.75 million

subscribers in the country. India has 368 member companies in the WIMAX forum, which also

includes 136 service providers.

VOIP

VoIP(Voice over Internet Protocol) helps people to make low call rates anywhere in the

world to mobiles or land phones via internet. This voIp requires high speed internet. It breaks the

voice to many digital packets to transfer voice over an efficient pathway of internet. With India’s

developing networking outside of the country, voip would be a great way to make

communication easier and simple. During August 2009, The Department of Telecom (DoT) gave

10

permission to VoIP in India but the guidelines were not mentioned at that time. The internet

service providers that need the licenses for VoIP must agree to share 9% of their annual revenue

to the government. Later, the telecom providers during 2009 either wired or wireless service

providers acquired their licenses for telephony internet.

Expected Changes in the Telecommunication Industry of India

1.159 billion Mobile phone subscribers by 2013Expected to reach a size of US$ 78.3

billion by 2012 with a growth rate of 26% and to generate job for about 10 million

people.

The low cost of broadband will help in the growth of broadband in India (Internet World

Stats., 2010).

Indian IT industry is taking initiatives in giving out computers below 10,000 Rs.

One of the trade groups, GSMA Ltd has predicted that by 2014 India’s will have 150

million 3G connections (NaukriHub, 2010).

Challenges /Problems identified

One of the major problems that are identified in the Indian telecommunication market is

less growth rate of internet users compared to the number of mobile phone subscribers. One

of the major reasons behind this trend is the growth people who use net from their mobile

phones not but not from computers BSNL holds more than half of the internet market share,

which may result them evolving as a monopoly in the coming years (Bruce Einhorn, 2007).

We doubt whether BSNL would turn out to the AT & T in India. Though the service

providers offer “handsome” offers for their customers, a lot of times these offers are unmet.

Furthermore, there are other infrastructure constraints such as low-quality cables that do not

support broad band which has resulted in the low broadband penetration rate in India.

Talking about the policies and regulations India has adopted in the telecommunication

industry, the reforms have happened over a long period of time. With the introduction of new

technologies, the consumer’s demand for better services and applications leaves a question of

how much the Indian service providers can introduce in the telecommunication market and

who all can afford it. One of the other challenges is the lack of infrastructure in the semi –

rural and rural areas of the country which makes the life of the service providers miserable.

11

Spectrum management is one of the huge problems in the Indian telecommunication

industry. Because of limited availability of spectrum, some of the companies cannot enter

into the Indian market that prevents healthy competition in the Indian telecommunication

market.

Recommendations

According to the reports, the rural tele-density is only 5% where as the urban tele-density

is 50%. This gap should be bridged by providing technological infrastructure in the rural

parts of the country.

India should focus on cellular games and technological innovations like internet protocol

services for the growth of the industry in the coming days (Frost and Sullivan , 2009).

Indian customers should be provided with adequate choices of mobile phones rather than

bundling the mobile phones with a few options of applications and the telephone service

providers should provide quality services to its customers.

The mobile phone companies should not sell their customer information to third parties.

The market should be opened so that all the service providers will get to provide services

to the consumers, resulting in fair competition among service providers.

In India, a large amount money, about 5.5 billion dollars in the USO Fund remained

unutilized. The reason for this is the inflexible rules by the government regarding usage

of funds. However, the government is planning to provide broadband connections within

two years to about 2.5 lakh panchayats throughout the country (Kalyan Parbat, 2010).

In order to attain this, rules of USO Fund are being modified constantly to increase the

rural penetration of telephone services. In addition to that, government should have a

control over the usage of subsidies provided to the service providers. The government

should make sure that the subsidies are being used properly otherwise people will not get

the benefits.

The system of managing USO Fund should be transparent, flexible, autonomic and

responsible in order to accomplish tele-density of 100% in India (Moni, 2010)

12

India, being a fastest growing telecommunication industry, faces a wide range of

challenges that are related to policies, technologies and consumer services. The adoption of the

above mentioned recommendations may help in overcoming these challenges and to emerge the

Indian telecommunication industry like the other developed nations.

WORKS CITED

(2009).VoIP Market – India. Retrieved from bharatbook website:

http://www.bharatbook.com/upload/VoIP-Market-India-Sample.pdf on 20, November

2010.

Amrit,. Telecommunications marketing in india. Retrieved from

http://www.amritt.com/telecommunications.html on 20, November 2010.

Bruce Einhorn, . (2007, October 07). Why internet connections are falling. Retrieved from

http://www.businessweek.com/blogs/eyeonasia/archives/2007/10/why_indias_internet_co

nnections_are_falling.html on 20, November 2010.

Cellular News, . (2009, July 12). Together, china and india reach the one billion customer

milestone. Retrieved from http://www.cellular-news.com/story/38484.php on 20,

November 2010.

Department of Telecommunications, . Investindiatelecom. Retrieved from

http://www.dot.gov.in/osp/Brochure/Brochure.htm on 20, November 2010.

Eric Lie. (2007, February 05). Next generation networks and universal access the challenges

ahead. Retrieved from http://www.itu.int/ITU-

D/treg/Events/Seminars/GSR/GSR07/discussion_papers/Eric_Lie_universal_service.pdf

on 22, November 2010.

Frost and Sullivan , . (2009). Country industry forecast report service. Retrieved from

http://www.frost.com/prod/servlet/cpo/2863885 on 20, November 2010.

India Telecom News, . (2010, Novemeber 13). indian 3g mobile subscribers to rise 80% by 2013.

Retrieved from http://indiatelecomnews.com/?p=919 on 29, November 2010.

Internet World Stats.. (2010). India. Retrieved from

http://www.internetworldstats.com/asia/in.htm on 30, November 2010.

Kalyan Parbat, . (2010, September 22). Dot, pitroda clash over rollout of rs 12k-cr optical fibre

project. Retrieved from http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-

industry/telecom/DoT-Pitroda-clash-over-rollout-of-Rs-12k-cr-optical-fibre-

project/articleshow/6603781.cms on 27, November 2010.

13

Mahima, CJ. (2010, May 20). India shining: onset of 3g technology. Retrieved from

http://www.merinews.com/article/india-shining-onset-of-3g-technology/15812890.shtml

on 22, November 2010.

Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, . (1885). The indian telegraph act,

1885. Retrieved from http://www.dot.gov.in/Acts/telegraphact.htm on 27, November

2010.

Ministry of Communication and Information Technology,. (1993). The indian wireless

telegraphy act, 1933 act xvii of 1933. Retrieved from

http://www.dot.gov.in/Acts/wirelessact.htm on 20, November 2010.

Ministry of Communication and Information Technology. (1997). The telecom regulatory

authority of india act, 1997 . Retrieved from http://www.dot.gov.in/Acts/traiact.htm on

20, November 2010.

Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, . (2001). The communication

convergence bill, 2001 . Retrieved from http://www.dot.gov.in/Acts/acts.htm on 20,

November 2010.

Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, . (2000). The information technology

act, 2000. Retrieved from http://www.dot.gov.in/Acts/acts.htm on 20, November 2010.

Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, . (2004). Indian telegraph amendment

rules 2004. Retrieved from http://www.dot.gov.in/Acts/acts.htm on 20, November 2010.

Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, . right to information department of

telecommunications. Retrieved from http://www.dot.gov.in/rti/rti.htm on 22, November

2010.

Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, . (2002, March 27). Policy, acts and

rules on uso fund. Retrieved from http://www.dot.gov.in/uso/usoindex.htm on 21,

November 2010.

Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, . Universal service obligation fund.

Retrieved from http://www.dot.gov.in/uso/implementationstatus.htm on 21, November

2010.

Moni, VS. (2010, September 22). Universal service obligation (uso) fund in india. Retrieved

from http://www.articlesbase.com/communication-articles/universal-service-obligation-

uso-fund-in-india-3317604.html on 26, November 2010.

Nadeem Unuth, . 3g technology - what is 3g?. Retrieved from

http://voip.about.com/od/mobilevoip/p/3G.htm on 20, November 2010.

NaukriHub,. (2010). 3g technologies in india. Retrieved from

http://www.naukrihub.com/india/telecom/recent-developments/3g.html on 20, November

2010.

14

Rakesh Kumar Jha, & Dr Upena D Dalal,. (2010). How wimax will deploy in india. (IJACSA)

International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications,, 1(1), 54. on 20,

November 2010.

Sanjay Bafna, . (2010, Novemeber 25). Bsnl intros yuva education plan with unlimited free calls

& 3g data access. Retrieved from http://telecomtalk.info/bsnl-intros-yuva-education-plan-

with-unlimited-free-calls-3g-data-access/49045/ on 28, November 2010.

Sanjay Bafna, . (2010, Novemeber 25). Mobile number portability launched in haryana, pan

india by january 20. Retrieved from http://telecomtalk.info/mobile-number-portability-

launched-in-haryana-pan-india-by-january-20/49150/ on 28, November 2010.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, . (2010 , July 13). The telecommunication (broadcasting

and cable services) interconnection (sixth amendment) regulations, 2010 (4 of 2010)

dated 30-07-2010. Retrieved from http://www.trai.gov.in/searchdoc.asp on 22, November

2010.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, . (2009, March 18). The register of interconnect

agreements (broadcasting and cable services) (fourth amendment) regulations, 2009 (5

of 2009). Retrieved from http://www.trai.gov.in/searchdoc.asp on 19, November 2010.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, . (2010, Novemeber 24). Telecommunication mobile

number portability (second amendment) regulations, 2010. Retrieved from

http://www.trai.gov.in/searchdoc.asp on 26, November 2010.

TELECOM REGULATORY AUTHORITY OF INDIA,. (2010, August 31). Telecom

subscription data as on 31st august 2010. Retrieved from

http://www.trai.gov.in/WriteReadData/trai/upload/PressReleases/767/August_Press_relea

se.pdf on 19, November 2010.

The Hindu, . (2010, September 02). 237 million internet users in india by 2015: report.

Retrieved from http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/internet/article609507.ece on 20,

November 2010.

World Bank,. (2010, Novemeber 25). Google public data. Retrieved from

http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-

wdi&met=sp_pop_totl&idim=country:CHN&dl=en&hl=en&q=current+population+of+c

hina#met=sp_pop_totl&idim=country:IND on 27, November 2010.

15