Government looks at ways to estimate size of digital economy

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

digital economy by identifying key performance indicators as well as gaps and the possible solutions to grow it further. It has set a goal of reaching $1 trillion digital economy in the next few years.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has floated a request for proposal seeking bids from agencies which can work on providing an estimation of the size of the digital economy by reviewing the existing literature and methodologies across the globe and then suggest an appropriate framework for India. The bidder will also be required to submit “key performance indicators (KPIs), data sources, methodology for regular data collection, estimate the size of the digital economy and jobs under digital economy” and make a projection of the size of the Indian economy five years down the line.

As the measurement of digital economy is not institutionalised and sectoral agencies or its participants do not either capture or report data which relates to the value added on account of digital technologies, MeitY wants a separate exercise to be done, an official said. “There are various parameters such as the gross value added on account of the digitisation of the economy, the change between July 2015 when the Digital India mission was started and now, the impact of e-commerce and emerging technologies.

These need to be captured through newer methods,” said the official, who did not wish to be identified. Apart from measuring the current state of the digital economy, the IT ministry also wants bidders to suggest ways to make projections for the growth of the digital economy from the current financial year to 2029-30.