Initial assertion

The blurb for this task force starts off with the assertion that "Wikimedia is under-penetrated in India despite the fact that the majority of India's online population speaks English and the presence of Wikipedias in languages prominently spoken in India."

I'd just like to ask if this is actually true. "Under-penetrated" compared to what? The penetration of Wikimedia in India is obviously lower than penetration in the United States, but several people elsewhere on this discussion page have noted that private Internet usage (and the pricing thereof) is distinct between the two countries.

My own experience on English Wikipedia is that it has a noticeable and growing impact in India. To take the example of the "In the news" section on the Main Page, we got more than 60k hits for the story on the 2009 Indian general elections: that might not sound a lot in proportion to the 5 million hits a day the Main Page gets, but it is more than any other election story in 2009. Our current story on the death of Jyoti Basu is getting far more hits than the usual for a politician's obituary. Checking some of the India-specific news stories which didn't make it to the Main Page last year also shows healthy hit rates.

I'm not suggesting that we shouldn't be doing more to help Wikimedia and Wikimedians in India, but surely we should also recognise the base that we already have.

Can anybody think of a measure for penetration?

How is it done for other countries?