The e-Readiness Assessment Framework

e-Readiness can be considered as the ability to pursue value creation opportunities for inclusive economic development facilitated by ICT. Therefore, it is not simply a matter of the number of computers, websites, internet service providers, internet connections, telephones and mobiles in the state/UT, but also the ability or readiness to use technology skillfully at the level of the individual, business and government. The framework used in the study is based on the NRI, published by WEF that measures “the degree of preparedness of nation or community to participate in and benefit from ICT developments”. The framework is modified the NRI to serve purpose of ranking of Indian States and UTs according to their e-Readiness. To measure the e-Readiness three main sub-indicators are used:

The environment that promotes the spread and usage of ICT

The readiness of different stake holders of the economy (the government - both the initiatives of the central government and the response of the state governments, businesses and the individual) to use ICT

The degree of usage of ICT by the three stakeholders. The e-Readiness Framework has been presented in Figure Below:

There are a number of techniques for data reduction or ordination Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is one of the simplest techniques that is wholly objective, in contrast to techniques that use subjective choices (like the Bray Curtis ordination). Since the main criticism of composite indicators is that weights for the constituent variables are many times selected in an ad hoc manner, multistage PCA has been chosen as the method to aggregate the data set and to evolve the e-Readiness index.

e-Readiness

Index

Environment

Readiness

Usage

Market Environment

Policy Environment

Infrastructure Environment

Individual Readiness

Business Readiness

Government Readiness

Individual Usage

Government Usage

Business Usage