Growth Dividends of Digital Communications: The Case for India

Abstract

This study captures the changing nature and magnitudes of telecom spillovers for India and also for South and South East Asia. The focus is primarily economic, although some social impacts are illustrated through case studies. The report is structured as follows – Section 2 provides a comprehensive literature review of the impacts generated by telecoms and other forms of physical infrastructure. Section 3 focuses on the celebrated digital dividends narrative for India, its achievements and potential. It details several econometric formulations adopted for the estimation of growth multipliers for telecoms in India. It also uses case studies to illustrate the micro mechanisms through which such impacts are generated.