Many global indices on digitalisation have consistently underestimated the digital potential of large emerging markets. For example, IMF’s Artificial Intelligence Preparedness Index (AIPI), ITU’s ICT Development Index (IDI), United Nation’s E-Government Development Index (EGDI) and Portulans Institute’s Network Readiness Index (NRI) have maintained that the developed countries including European countries are digitally more advanced than emerging markets such as Brazil, China, India and Indonesia. With Deepseek in China, Aadhaar, world’s largest digital identity program in India, Pix, an interoperable real time payments system in Brazil, digital wallets in Indonesia and neobanking in Nigeria, developing countries are not only moving from the margins to mainstream of digital innovation, they now accounting for the global majority of internet and smartphone users, making them an integral part of the global digital economy.
While digitalisation has altered the ways in which nations produce and consume, pathways to greater digitalisation have varied across countries. Global indices that often rely on the approaches adopted by developed countries, overlooking the unique pathways chosen by the developing world. The Connect–Harness–Innovate–Protect– Sustain (CHIPS) framework introduced in the State of India’s Digital Economy (SIDE) 2023 report, and fine-tuned in the SIDE 2024 report, provides a realistic assessment of the global digital landscape (see Figure ES 1). Through a multi-layered structure, it better captures elements that define the breadth and depth of digitalisation than that of traditional global indices.
