66% entertainment, 11.4% e-governance: How India's connected households divide their time online

Published 10 June 2026 · india

Seventy-two per cent of Indian households are now connected to the internet, yet the vast majority of that connectivity is directed at entertainment and social

Seventy-two per cent of Indian households are now connected to the internet, yet the vast majority of that connectivity is directed at entertainment and social media rather than government services, financial access or education, according to a Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) survey covering nearly 50,000 households, which finds that how Indians connect and what they do once connected are two entirely separate questions. View full Image View full Image India's internet users spend more time watching films than accessing government services, NCAER data shows Entertainment first, everything else second The single most common use of the internet among connected Indian households is watching films, television programmes and news, at 66%. Social media follows at 53.8%, meaning that roughly two-thirds of connected homes are primarily using their internet access for content consumption and social engagement Together, these two categories account for the dominant share of household internet activity, and they sit at a significant distance from every other use category in the data.

Also Read | How do Indian households use the internet? The findings come from the NCAER report "The Evolving Landscape of Digital Inclusion in India," drawn from the third wave of the India Human Development Survey covering 47,473 households and 212,607 individuals between 2022 and 2024. India's internet user base grew from approximately 198 million in 2015 to more than 1.03 billion by 2025, driven by affordable smartphones and low-cost mobile data. Mobile wallets beat bank branch The data captures a telling shift in how Indian households handle money online. While 40.8% of connected households use the internet for money transfers, utility bill payments via digital wallets such as Paytm and BHIM account for 11.7%, compared with just 4.4% for utility bill payments via internet banking. E-governance: The 11.4% problem Despite sustained public investment in the Digital India programme, only 11.4% of connected households use the internet to access government services.

The NCAER report notes that digital technologies have not consistently translated into engagement with education, financial services or government portals. The connected household is far more likely to open a streaming application than a citizen services portal, a gap that raises direct questions about the practical returns on India's digital infrastructure spending. Online learning: 16.1% Online learning accounts for 16.1% of household internet activity, against entertainment's 66%, a ratio of roughly four to one. India added approximately 830 million internet users in a decade largely through cheap mobile data. The NCAER data points to the degree to which that expansion has served content consumption rather than education or skills development. A billion users, 440 million still offline India's connectivity milestone sits alongside a parallel reality. While the country crossed one billion internet users by October 2025, approximately 440 million people remained offline at the year's end.