India still lacks vision to commit funds for ICT infrastructure. India’s telecom policies in the past never aimed for offering better quality of life to citizens.
Building a Networked Society is one of our time’s great challenges for mankind. Although this analysis should be seen as a humble starting point to explore the link between ICT investments and sustainable development, it is our joint hope and intention that this report can serve as inspiration for cities that do not settle for the status quo”, said Erik Almqvist, director of Arthur D. Little Sweden.
The economic benefits of mobile broadband are also highlighted in the study. For every 10 percentage points’ increase in mobile-phone penetration, the isolated economic effect on GDP growth is an increase of about 0.5 percent.
The three best-performing cities presented in the index – Singapore, Stockholm and Seoul – have successfully met many social, economic and environmental targets by making extensive investments in ICT.
Singapore is aggressively driving innovation in e-health, and is a pioneer in traffic-congestion management. Stockholm sees ICT as a major enabler for research collaboration and knowledge transfer, while Seoul is using ICT to realize green high-tech initiatives.
The index also suggests actions for low-ranking cities, which are encouraged to provide digital access and ICT training for the underprivileged parts of their populations to reduce the digital divide.
By providing examples of how ICT can promote a city’s growth, the index can be used to inspire dialog with decision makers to use ICT to enable organizational and societal success – from economic, environmental and social perspectives”, said Erik Kruse, from the Networked Society lab at Ericsson.
By TelecomLead.com Team
