Digital Quality of Life Index

Context:

India ranks among the lowest in the world in terms of Internet quality, according to global research released by online privacy solutions provider SurfShark.

About:

• The Digital Quality of Life Index 2020 is prepared by Surfshark, a virtual private network (VPN) provider based in the British Virgin Islands.
• The study sampled the quality of digital wellbeing in 85 countries across the globe over five key pillars:
  • Internet affordability
  • Internet quality
  • electronic infrastructure
  • electronic government
  • electronic security
• All parameters have equal weightage.

Key-highlights of the Index

• As per the “Digital Quality of Life Index 2020”, in terms of e-infrastructure, India occupies 79th place, ranking below countries including Guatemala and Sri Lanka.
• India makes it into the top 10 in terms of Internet affordability. With a ranking of nine, it outperforms countries such as the U.K., the U.S., and China.
• Additionally, when it comes to e-government, India occupies 15th place globally, just below countries like New Zealand and Italy.
• However, India’s Internet quality is one of the lowest across 85 countries analyzed in the research.
• In position 78, India is at the bottom of the pillar with unstable and slow mobile Internet dragging it down in the overall Internet quality index.
• This year’s Digital Quality of Life Index found that seven of the 10 countries with the highest digital quality of life are in Europe, with Denmark leading among 85 countries.
• Canada stands out as a country with the highest digital quality of life in the Americas, while Japan takes the leading position in Asia.
• Among the countries in Africa, people in South Africa enjoy the highest quality of digital lives whereas New Zealand leads in Oceania, outperforming Australia in various digital areas.