How pandemic helped digitise economies

Chennai: The Fletcher School at Tufts University, in partnership with Mastercard, has unveiled the Digital Intelligence Index, which charts the progress economies have made in advancing digitalisation, fostering trust and integrating connectivity into the lives of billions.

According to a press release, the index highlights that populous developing economies including India, Indonesia, Brazil and Nigeria continue to attract investor interest even though institutional and infrastructural gaps prevail.

Interestingly, the digital journeys of these economies are quite different- while Indonesia and India experienced high momentum, Brazil and Nigeria experienced slow momentum.

Notably across Asia Pacific, Singapore, Hong Kong SAR, South Korea and Chinese Taipei are amongst the most digitally dynamic economies.

Bhaskar Chakravorti, dean of Global Business at Fletcher, said, ‘The pandemic may be the purest test of the world’s progress towards digitalisation. We have a clearer view on how dynamic digital economies can contribute to economic resiliency during a time of unparalleled global turmoil and can be positioned for recovery and change.”

Other key findings include:

With nearly two thirds of the world’s population online today, we are entering an ‘after access’ phase, where access alone is not enough. Aspects such as the quality of access, effective use of digital technologies, accountable institutions, robust data governance policies and fostering trust are greater factors in determining digital competitiveness and sustainability.

Young people in emerging economies are demonstrating high levels of digital engagement, a bright spot for governments attempting to expand digitalisation in their economies.

Ajay Bhalla, president, Cyber and Intelligence, Mastercard, said, “Whilst much remains uncertain today, it is clear that digital success will be a key building block in our collective recovery”.

This year’s index looks at two components: Digital Evolution and Digital Trust.

Digital Evolution captures an economy’s historical momentum from the physical past to the digital present. Digital Trust is the bridge that connects its journey from the digital present to an intelligent and inclusive digital future.

Mapping 95 per cent of the world’s online population and drawing on 12 years of data, the Digital Evolution scorecard measures 160 indicators in 90 economies across four key pillars: institutional environment, demand conditions, supply conditions, and the capacity for innovation and change.These segment into four categories:

Stand Out economies that are highly digitally advanced and exhibit high momentum, Stall Out economies that enjoy a high-state of digital advancement while exhibiting relatively slower momentum, Break Out economies that are lower scoring in their present states of digitalisation but are evolving rapidly and the fourth category is Watch Out economies – they face significant challenges with their relatively lower state of digitalisation and lower momentum

India is one of the economies in the Break Out category, owing to strong momentum in its digital journey and optimistic attitudes towards digitalisation and technology.

The Digital Trust scorecard measures 198 indicators in 42 of the index’s economies across four key pillars: behaviour, attitudes, environment, and experience.