SYLLABUS

GS-2: Important Aspects of Governance.

GS-3: Science and Technology- Developments and their Applications and Effects in Everyday Life.

Context: In the newly released Network Readiness Index 2025 (NRI 2025), India has improved its position by four places to rank 45th.

About Network Readiness Index

• It maps how economies leverage information and communication technologies to support growth, innovation and social development.
• It assesses the network readiness of 127 economies based on their performance across four pillars — Technology, People, Governance and Impact, covering a total of 53 indicators.
• The report has been released by the Portulans Institute, an independent, non-profit research and educational institute based in Washington DC.

Key Findings of NRI 2025

• India has not only improved its ranking (49th to 45th) but has also improved its score from 53.63 out of 100 in 2024 to 54.43 in 2025.
• India secured the top position globally in several key indicators, including
  • Annual investment in telecommunication services,
  • AI scientific publications,
  • ICT services exports, and
  • E-commerce legislation
• India also ranked second in FTTH/building internet subscriptions, mobile broadband internet traffic within the country and international internet bandwidth.
• It ranked third in domestic market scale and income inequality.
• The world's most network-ready societies in 2025 are:
  • United States of America (Rank 1, Score 79.13)
  • Finland (Rank 2, Score 75.82)
  • Singapore (Rank 3, Score 75.46)

Identified Gaps and Challenges

• Despite high scores in infrastructure and investment, the report highlights a sharply asymmetric digital landscape, with persistent gaps in governance and inclusion.
• Governance Gap: India ranks 73rd in the Governance pillar, with specific weaknesses in Privacy Protection by Law (101st) and Regulatory Quality (78th).
• Social Impact:While India ranks 14th in Economy impact, it faces hurdles in SDG Contribution (83rd) and Quality of Life (77th), indicating that digital benefits are not yet equitably distributed.

Recommendations of the Report

• Bridging the Regulatory Gap: Improving Regulatory Quality (78th) is essential for the government to create a predictable environment for the next $500 billion in digital investments.
• Modernizing Labour Governance: The report highlights the need for aligning the new Labour Codes with technology-enabled, hybrid work models to boost productivity and employment outcomes in a technology-driven economy.
• Strengthening Trust-Based AI: India’s strong AI research output must be complemented by robust trust, ethics, and data-governance frameworks to ensure secure and responsible AI deployment.

SOURCES
Network Readiness Index
Policy edge
PIB