In 2020 India suffered the biggest economic impact in the world caused by internet shutdowns that adds up to 8,921 hours and the losses of $2.8 billion, states a report by Top10VPN, which is a UK-based privacy and security research firm.
According to the report, India suffered more than double the combined cost of the next 20 countries on the list. The report also adds that the actual impact of the internet shutdown on the Indian economy can be even higher than the $2.8 billion that is mentioned.
The report says, “As, in previous years, India continued to restrict internet access more than any other country — over 75 times in 2020. The majority of these short blackouts were highly targeted, affecting groups of villages or individual city districts, and so were not included in this report, which focuses on larger region-wide shutdowns.”
Curbs on internet use in Kashmir that started with suspension of internet services from August 2019 (when the special status of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) was scrapped) and lasted till March 2020, was mentioned separately in the report. The report terms the curbs in the state as the longest internet shutdown in a democracy.
The report says, “The restrictions have negatively impacted the distribution of medicine, businesses, and schools.”
As per the data by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), there were 11.70 million wireless subscribers in the J&K circle, by October 31.
Economic losses due to internet curbs came down by 50 per cent globally in 2020, while it surged in India. There were 93 major shutdowns during the year while the world suffered the Covid-19 pandemic, as per the report.
