Almost 80% of Indians have mobile connections

Amid the ongoing and somewhat controversial auction of radio spectrum, the Lok Sabha was informed today that there are as many 95.5 crore mobile phone connections amid India's 1.2 billion (120 crore) population.

In percentile terms, this means that almost 80 per cent of Indians rely on cell phones.

Telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said this growth of mobile telephony was a reflection on how much the mobile phone network has expanded in the country.

On the internet front, he said, "There were 30 core internet connections in the country till last year, which is more than the United States and next to China.''

In the use of smartphones, ''India is next only to the US," he added during Question Hour.

He said the telecom ministry was implementing its Technology Development for Indian Languages (TDIL) programme, and its objectives included research and development of language technologies, software tools and applications for Indian languages, proliferation of language technology products and solutions.

Another objective of the programme was to develop standards for linguistic resources, tools and applications for inter-operability.

The minister said under the TDIL programme, CDs containing software tools and fonts for 22 constitutionally-recognised Indian languages have been made available in public domain through the http://www.tdil-dc.in.

"TDIL is an ongoing research and development programme which caters to emerging language technology needs of the masses and changing Information and Communication Technology environment," he said.