PoIND: Policy-oriented analysis of Internet inclusivity for National Development

The Internet is one of the most pivotal technological inventions that has shaped the world today. It acts as a medium for connecting people across the world and enabling them to perform a myriad of tasks ranging from using social media to buying daily groceries. With its wide applicability and reach into various walks of life, the Internet influences the economic, social, political and cultural spheres of a nation's development. We aim to study the extent of Internet inclusivity of the populace in a region as an indicator of its level of national development. This is done by measuring different developmental indices such as Global Peace Index, Corruptions Perceptions Index and UN E-Government Development Index, as described in the Internet Inclusivity Index 2017 - 2021 dataset. We make novel use of the stepwise regression technique by categorising countries in the dataset based on a threshold chosen as the median value of the respective development index. This groups an equal number of countries into an upper and lower threshold of the index each. We additionally propose a comprehensive framework of inferences and custom solutions that further development, specific to the group of countries falling under a particular threshold.