Hopeful of Touching 500 Million Internet Users in 2016: Prasad

The government is hopeful that India will touch 500 million Internet users mark by the end of 2016, union Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in New Delhi on Wednesday.

"India now has 400 million Internet connections. We thought we will have 500 million users by 2017. But now I am hopeful that it will happen this year," he said.

He was speaking at the book launch of 'Digital Desh 2.0' by NowFloats.

Corroborating the growing penetration of internet, Sharad Sharma, co-founder of iSPIRT, said more people at present read newspapers online than the readership top 10 Indian newspapers taken together.

Saying that the country is in the cusp of digital revolution the minister added, India first observe technology, then adopt it and finally enjoy it.

Prasad said the people of the country are forcing change in the technology sector.

Talking about the present National Democratic Alliance government's pro-technology approach, he said: "We even take complaints from people in social media. Social media is empowering and enlightening people."