Just The Facts: India Goes Mobile
Examining the astounding social trends of India.
December 14, 2013
1. While India remains extremely poverty stricken, one of the positive developments has been the expansion of access to mobile phones.
2. In 1947, the year when India was partitioned and granted independence, there were only 100,000 phones in the country.
3. India currently has more than 900 million telephone subscribers, 96% of whom are mobile users.
4. The results of a recent survey showed that India had far more mobile phones than toilets of any kind.
5. 53% of the country’s 247 million households still defecate in the open, posing a major public health challenge.
6. India’s mobile-phone density in 2012 approached 75%.
From When a Subcontinent Goes Cellular by Isaac Chotiner (Wall Street Journal)
