In a study jointly conducted by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and Indian Market Research Bureau (IMRB), an estimated 5.4 million people in rural India will be active online in 2010---i.e. they will surf the Internet at least once a month. This is a marked increase from last year’s estimate of 4.2 million active users.

An obvious 85% use the Internet for sending and receiving emails, but a whopping 67% use it for watching and listening to music and videos, an interesting choice of usage. Forty-eight percent use it primarily for education and information, while 13% research the latest farming techniques online.

A large number of users (70%) access the Internet from cyber cafes and other common centres---only 10% access it from home.