"NSO Report Reveals: 51% of Rural Women in India Lack Mobile Phone Ownership".

National

In May 2025, the National Statistical Office (NSO) under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), Government of India (GoI), released the ‘Comprehensive Modular Survey: Telecom, 2025 (CMS-T) Report’.


      - This report is part of the 80th round of the National Sample Survey (NSS) conducted during January–March 2025.

      - According to the survey findings, 51.6% of women aged 15 years and above in rural areas do not own a mobile phone.

      - The NSO defined mobile phone ownership as possession of a device with an active Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card for personal use.

Main Point :-   (i) 85.5% of Indian households own at least one smartphone.

      (ii) Around 86.3% of households have internet access within their premises.

(iii) Among individuals aged 15–29 years, 68.7% are capable of conducting online banking transactions via mobile or computer, including 63.4% in rural areas and 79.7% in urban areas.

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