5.4 mn Internet users in rural India by 2010

 NEW DELHI, INDIA: The number of active Internet users in Rural India is set to increase by 30 per cent from 3.3 million in 2008 to 5.4 million in 2010, according to a research jointly conducted by The Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB.

Email is the dominant purpose of Internet access in rural India, said the report. It is interesting to note that after communication, 67 percent of the rural users access music and video over the Internet. About 48 percent of the people claim to have used the Internet for educational research and 42 percent claim they used it for general information search.

The report further highlighted that about 13 percent of the people use the Internet for knowing more about latest farming techniques and eight percent of the people use it to find more about fertilizers and pesticides, indicating the possibility of harnessing the Internet towards agricultural revolution in India.