Annotated Bibliography

Research Topic

• India’s rapid growth in internet access, how it has affected the country, the difference between regions of the country, what the future looks like for India, problems that arise from the internet
• From zero users in 1995, India now has about 600 million internet users — the second highest in the world.
• https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/the-india-story-after-25-years-of-internet-and-how-it-has-transformed-our-lives/articleshow/77565596.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Article 1

• Srivastava, S. (2011). Impact of internet growth on the online stock trading in india. Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce. Retrieved from https://proxy.wm.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/impact-internet-growth-on-online-stock-trading/docview/1010389475/se-2?accountid=15053
• In this scholarly journal, the researcher, Srivastava, explores the effects of internet growth on India’s stock market, the National Stock Exchange. This article was published in 2011 and is outdated, but still highlights interesting effects that the internet had at the time that it began to rapidly expand in India. In the next year, 2012, the number of internet users in India surpassed the number in the United States.
• The journal focuses on the history of online trading in the National Stock Exchange, how online trading has affected investors, and how online trading has affected the market as a whole.
• Online trading was first introduced to the National Stock Exchange in 2002. Its biggest effect was making it easier for investors to interact with the market by reducing paperwork and speeding up the process. This led to people investing more often, and the system becoming more accessible to new investors. Ten years after the market introduced online trading, the market’s exchange turnover grew by 1488%.
• The journal also highlights the dangers that online trading brings. One negative pattern seen in online investors was overconfidence. With the ability to interact with the market quicker than others, online traders would trade excessively, even causing them to lose money from switching to online trading. Another danger of expanding online trading is security. The writing warns to stay cautious of cybercrime concerns as the infrastructure for online trading expands.
• What can be taken away from this document is how quickly the introduction of the internet affected people in India. Less than 2% of Indians had access to the internet when the National Stock Exchange introduced online trading, but investors were quick to begin using the tool, even if they didn’t know how to fully take advantage of it yet.

  Article 2

• Pasricha, A. (2011). India’s internet growth fuels net-based businesses. Washington: Federal Information & News Dispatch, LLC. Retrieved from https://proxy.wm.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/reports/indias-internet-growth-fuels-net-based-businesses/docview/903741858/se-2?accountid=15053
• This report was published in the same year as the previous source. This piece looks at how businesses in India have been affected by the rapid introduction of the internet. Specifically, the report looks at the founder of Zomato.com, an online service that helps people find information about restaurants near them. The report also speculates what the future of internet growth may look like.
• Zomato was founded in 2008, only a few years before this report was published, and they have grown in users rapidly since beginning their service. The founder believes that the increase in users comes with the increase of personal computers and the decline of cybercafes. Consumers could access the website from their homes and look at restaurants before going out to eat. This increase in personal internet access has helped businesses like Zomato. The report also discusses increases in online shopping and a larger Indian presence on social media sites like Facebook. The report concludes by noting that an increase in mobile phone users may also grow the use of online services, as they make the internet more accessible.

  Article 3

• Gosavi, A. (2017). Use of the Internet and its Impact on Productivity and Sales Growth in Female-Owned Firms: Evidence from India. Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Innovation. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.7341/20171327
• This article is similar to the last article, as it explores how businesses have been impacted by the growth of the internet. This article looks specifically at women-owned firms in India and how the adoption of the internet affects their business.

  Article 4

• Jayaraman, T. K., & Makun, K. (2019). Digitisation as a Contingent Factor in India’s Financial Sector Development-growth Nexus: An Empirical Study. Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, 13(3), 306–326. https://doi.org/10.1177/0973801019841261
• This research article looks at the effects that India’s “digitization” has had on its financial sector development. The study examines looks at digitization’s effect from 2003 to 2015. The study finds that the growth of information and communication technology does have a role in improving financial sector development, and goes on to explain how.
• Banks and financial institutions in India have been reluctant to open branches in rural areas. Most banks are only available to those in densely populated areas, making it hard for many citizens to save and transfer money. However, widespread internet access has made it so that people in these rural areas can access banks online. This has lead to the population of digital transactions among Indian consumers and making it easier for consumers in rural areas to interact with businesses online.
• After analyzing fiscal data from 2003 to 2015, the researchers found that there was a link between financial sector development and information and communication technology. They came to their conclusion by looking at gross domestic output compared to mobile phone subscriptions. They go on to say “the full potential of financial sector data and information and communication technology as a contingent factor in supporting financial inclusion can be realized to a fuller extent only when an enabling environment is provided and nurtured.” To find how to create this enabling environment, they propose improving infrastructure in India. They suggest access to constant electricity and better roads in local areas. These things will make it easier for people to use the internet and personal devices as well as make it easier for local businesses to grow and create jobs. Finally, they suggest “raising the credit-absorptive capacity of rural households.” This means connecting people to banks and lines of credit. They suggest making medical and educational programs more accessible in rural areas and making it easier for households to borrow credit for these programs.

  Article 5

• Future of consumption in fast-growth consumer markets: India. World Economic Forum. (2019, January 7). Retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/reports/future-of-consumption-in-fast-growth-consumer-markets-india.
• This report from 2019 explores current data and makes estimates on India’s economic future. The report describes India as “on the cusp of tremendous opportunity” (6) and one of the fastest-growing large countries. The report predicts over a billion internet users in India by 2030. This “democratization” will lead to a larger user base to interact with digital platforms and will change how businesses in India are run. This will also mean a larger Indian internet presence seen in other parts of the world, as Indian media becomes globally mainstream. While most internet users in other parts of the world access the internet through a personal computer, over 80% of internet users in India primarily access the internet using mobile devices. This percentage is only projected to increase. This may lead tech companies and app developers to create mobile experiences specifically targeted at Indian consumers. These mobile experiences can also rely on location-based servicing, which can make them more effective than products that do not have as prominent location services as mobile devices. The report also believes that due to an increase in internet usage, India “will have significantly more informed consumers who will demand greater transparency from brands” (20). Because consumers will have more information available to them (e.g. online product reviews) before they buy something, it means that businesses must be more honest with their consumers, in order to maintain a better reputation and keep customers.
• India’s large number of internet users also leads to new kinds of businesses becoming profitable. Ride-sharing services, renting services, and subscription-based products will continue to grow in India, just as they do in countries like the US and UK. Online services dedicated to education, health, and wellbeing are also made accessible to more and more people, allowing them to find customers. E-consultation with doctors means that people living in rural areas will have access to better medical treatment.
• As internet access grows, the largest percentage of new users will be older, less tech-savvy, and harder for current online platforms to reach. Businesses looking to take advantage of the “largest mobile-user base in the world” (22) will need to target this demographic the hardest. This can be done by making platforms more accessible through voice-control, video conferencing, and increasing other ways to interact. Platforms can also find new ways to advertise or cater to audiences using data collected from them to personalize their online experiences. However, this runs into issues of data privacy, which will become more and more relevant as India’s internet base grows.