Context

India has witnessed a surge in digital consumption and technology-led innovation over the past decade.

Internet penetration in India has nearly doubled from around 28% in 2016 to 49% in 2022.1 Average data consumption too has increased exponentially from 1.24 GB per month in 2018 to 16.4 GB in June 2022.2 This growth is fuelled by low data tariffs as well as smartphones becoming cheaper and more accessible. 3

The growth in internet access and usage has boosted innovation across diverse sectors such as HealthTech, EdTech, e-commerce, FinTech and digital welfare delivery. India is one of the fastest growing FinTech markets and EdTech users have increased from 45 mn to 90 mn between 2019 and 2020.4 5 Moreover, the government’s strong focus on digitisation of welfare services has connected and provided efficient public services to the country’s vast populace. In 2022, 99% of adults had access to Aadhaar cards and Aadhaar numbers were included in the service delivery database of almost all Public Distribution System (ration distribution) beneficiaries.6

However, with growing digitisation, exposure of individuals to technology risks has the potential to increase.

The past few years have witnessed a steady increase of digital risks such as data breaches, digital financial frauds and online harassment, among others. In 2020, India witnessed an almost five-fold increase in online gender-related abuse. Data breaches increased 26-fold between 2016 and 2021.7 8 Large value (INR 100,000 or more) frauds involving cards and the internet have risen 75% between 2018 and 2022.9 10

Growing adoption of digital products and services, and corresponding growth of technology risks call for strengthening safeguards and responsible technology practices.

Smartphone penetration has more than doubled over the past six years11 We define responsible technology as the adoption of five key principles: 2021

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