'Indian Internet users to surpass US in 2014'

August 12, 2014

New Delhi, Aug 12: Indian Internet users will surpass the number in the US by the end of this year and around 500 million people will be online by 2018, Rajan Anandan, managing director, Google India said here Tuesday.

"Even at the current growth rate, we will have 500 million Indians on the Internet by 2018. By the end of this year, India will become larger than the US in terms of number of Internet users. By 2018, India will have twice the number of Internet users as the US does. Almost half the country will be connected through the Internet," he said while addressing "Digitizing India" organised by FICCI Ladies Organisation.

He mentioned that it took the country 10 years to go from 10 million Internet users to 100 million Internet users. Now the country is adding five million new Internet users every month. India now has over 200 million Internet users.

"A lot of people talk about the last elections (2014 general elections) and how urban India was mobilised using the Internet. We have seen nothing yet in terms of what the Internet can do to every aspect of life, of society and of governance. By the next elections (expected in 2019) almost half a billion Indians will be connected through Internet. In terms of the kind of mobilisation, can you imagine what it can do?"

He mentioned that the path of purchase has changed in India and people are increasingly using online platform for retail purchase.

Talking about the next big technology wave in the world, he said wearable gadgets are expected to take four years to reach a billion consumers.

"Everything is getting accelerated with technology. Every new wave of technology has taken half as long as the previous technology. The next big thing will take half the time taken by smartphones," he said.

Smartphones took eight years to reach a billion consumers. "The future is here. Wearable devices are the next big thing. It is taking on computing. All these wearable devices will penetrate across the world very fast, and with it technology will get better and better," he added.

He also mentioned that software will impact traditional industries in a big way in the coming days. "Like the automotive industry has not changed much in the last 50 years. The next big thing that could happen is the driverless car. In the next 20 years, in our lifetime, software can do anything," Anandan said.

He pointed out that consumers are now connected through numerous devices like television, notebooks, laptops, smartphones and wearable devices as well.

In 2014, 2.8 billion people in the world out of seven billion are connected through the Internet. By 2020, it is expected that five billion people will be using the Internet.

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‘Pay the worker before his sweat dries’: Madras High Court cites Prophet Muhammad’s teaching while ordering settlement of dues

News Network

December 21,2025

Invoking the teachings of Prophet Muhammad—“pay the worker before his sweat dries”—the Madras High Court has directed a municipal corporation to settle long-pending legal dues owed to a former counsel. The court observed that this principle reflects basic fairness and applies equally to labour and service-related disputes.

Justice G. R. Swaminathan made the observation while hearing a petition filed by advocate P. Thirumalai, who claimed that the Madurai City Municipal Corporation failed to pay him legal fees amounting to ₹13.05 lakh. Earlier, the High Court had asked the corporation to consider his representation. However, a later order rejected a major portion of his claim, prompting the present petition.

The court allowed Thirumalai to approach the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) and submit a list of cases in which he had appeared. It also directed the corporation to settle the verified fee bills within two months, without interest. The court noted that the petitioner had waited nearly 18 years before challenging the non-payment and that the corporation could not be fully blamed, as the fee bills were not submitted properly.

‘A Matter of Embarrassment’

Justice Swaminathan described it as a “matter of embarrassment” that the State has nearly a dozen Additional Advocate Generals. He observed that appointing too many law officers often leads to unnecessary allocation of work and frequent adjournments, as government counsel claim that senior officers are engaged elsewhere.

He expressed hope that such practices would end at least in the Madurai Bench of the High Court and added that Additional Advocate Generals should “turn a new leaf” from 2026 onwards.

‘Scandalously High Amounts’

While stating that the court cannot examine the exact fees paid to senior counsel or law officers, Justice Swaminathan stressed that good governance requires public funds to be used prudently. He expressed concern over the “scandalously high amounts” paid by government and quasi-government bodies to a few favoured law officers.

In contrast, the court noted that Thirumalai’s total claim was “a pittance” considering the large number of cases he had handled.

Background

Thirumalai served as the standing counsel for the Madurai City Municipal Corporation for more than 14 years, from 1992 to 2006. During this period, he represented the corporation in about 818 cases before the Madurai District Courts.

As the former counsel was unable to hire a clerk to obtain certified copies of judgments in all 818 cases, the court directed the District Legal Services Authority to collect the certified copies within two months. The court further ordered the corporation to bear the cost incurred by the DLSA and deduct that amount from the final settlement payable to the petitioner.

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