8/6/2019 India- How It is Placed in the Digital Age

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India: How It Is Placed In Digital Age

In last two days, I have got to read two very interesting, somewhat related but

yet very distant to each other news about digital landscape of India. Let me startwith the softer and smaller one, which will play a role of catalyst in connecting

entire India through internet. Information Technology department of Government

of India is working out a plan to two hundred and fifty thousand telecentres

(internet enabled service kiosks) in every panchayat (Local governing body at

village level) by 2012 for providing railway reservation, weather and agriculture

related information to the rural populace. At present, there 94000 such

telecentre in the country. This will not only help a great way in providing

transparent information at the ground level to the rural people, but also fuel the

consumption of newer products and services and pave way for inclusive growth.

Further, this will also change the thought process and personality of consumers

out there, because they will be exposed to information, products and services,

which were so far limited to their urban counterparts.

Next news is on more relevant topic to us, i.e., social media. Its use in India is on

the meteoric rise and the numbers are proving it. Recently concluded IPL

Season-4 saw a campaign run by NOKIA for Kolkata Knight Riders owned by

movie star Shahrukh Khan. According to NOKIA officials, their campaign “KKR-

 Tension Mat Le Yaar”, invited users to suggest ways to reduce stress and tension

to KKR players, received more than two hundred thousand entries. HUL’s

Facebook page Axe Angels for eponymous deodorant has 1.6 million members

within a year of its launch. Coca Cola’s latest launch, music property Coke Studiohas 1,07,000 fans on the Coke Studio @ MTV Facebook page without a single

song released till now.

 These numbers are also being supported by the expenditure on social and online

media. Medison Media estimates that, in 2010, internet advertisement

( excluding search) was Rs.6.8 Billion, which is expected to climb to Rs.9.17

Billion in 2011. Online advertisement grew 50% in 2010. In contrast, overall TV

advertising spend was Rs. 105.3 Billion in 2010 and expected to increase to

Rs.126 billion by this year. According to online portal Webchutney’s digital media

outlook report, FMCG, which accounts for 42% of the overall ad spend in thecountry, spends 9% of it online.

Both the news is heart warming. One is of taking India more closer to complete

digitalization and other is making best use of it. A Nielson company report

suggests that 30 million online consumers are members of social networking

sites and 20 million of these spend time on it daily and Indian spend more time

on social media then they do checking personal mails. These numbers clearly

indicates where we are headed for. As these telecentres are going to change the

digital landscape on India, social media is going to change the marketing

communication landscape. It is going to be really huge.

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