Modi government imposed more costly internet outages than almost any other nation, according to the Top VPN report. Some of the outages constituted election interference, while others violated people’s right to peaceful assembly and freedom of the press. The biggest economic setback was experienced from throttling internet speed in Kashmir, which was restored after 18 months, during which education and business greatly suffered apart from the disruption due to COVID-19 crisis. Delhi suffered localized internet blackout in late January 2021 in response to the farmers’ protest against the Modi’s three controversial farm laws. It may also surprise one that Rajasthan’s internet was shut down in September 2021 to prevent cheating in examinations.The Foundation has said in its report that access to the internet must be seen as a right rather than a service, especially in a developing country like India, with a digital population of 560 million, and where a 10 per cent increase in internet connectivity can result in a 3.3 per cent increase in per capita GDP. Despite this, internet connectivity is limited and internet shutdowns are common in India, and legal remedies often prove inadequate.The Connectivity Tracker report published in January 2022 has been quoted by the report which had found that despite the low cost of data in India, about $0.68 per GB, in 10 out of 28 states and 2 out of 8 Union Territories less than 40 per cent of women regularly use the internet. Moreover, only 1 out of 3 people access the internet in rural areas, while in urban areas people have, on an average, more than one internet connection. It is despite introduction of National Digital Communications Policy, 2018, Universal Service Obligation Fund, Bharatnet project and National Broadband Mission, which clearly shows the dismal performance of the government on promotion of internet connectivity.While discussing the impact and injury from the internet shutdowns, the report made assessments of impacts on economic, social and political activities in the country. It mentioned as per Top 10 VPN, the internet was shut down in India for 1,157 hours in 2021, which cost the economy $582.8 million, which included 317.5 hours of total internet blackout and 840 hours of bandwidth throttling.
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