Wedoany.com Report on Feb 15th, Union Minister for Communications and Development of the North Eastern Region, Jyotiraditya Scindia, stated at the ET Now Global Business Summit that India's current economic transformation is being driven by digital infrastructure, powering business and the economy. Scindia pointed out that India's digital connectivity tech stack is the infrastructure for a modern economy, comparable to the transport systems during the Industrial Revolution.

Scindia emphasized that a key driver of the digital transformation is the significant reduction in data costs. Twelve years ago, the cost of 1GB of data was around 287 rupees, which has now dropped to about 9 rupees per GB. He said, "The global average data cost is about $2.49, while ours is around 11 cents. This shift is powering business and the economy."

This shift has enabled Indian citizens, from farmers in Tripura to coffee growers in Nagaland, to connect to global markets via the digital highway. India also leads the world in digital transaction volume through platforms like the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC). Scindia said, "Today, UPI processes close to 20 billion transactions monthly, 250 billion annually, amounting to $4.3 trillion. 50% of global digital transactions happen in India."

At the 2023 G20 Ministerial Meeting, digital capacity was identified as a key pillar for sustainable development goals, with India recognized as a global leader in this field. The revised Bharatnet project will invest approximately 1.39 trillion rupees to extend optical fiber cable and broadband connectivity to 256,000 village panchayats and 380,000 villages.

India has strategically shifted from importing telecom equipment to developing an indigenous tech stack, breaking the monopoly of foreign manufacturers. This 'Made in India' tech stack is powering the 4G deployment of the state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). Scindia stated, "Our state-owned telecom company BSNL faced two paths. One was to follow other telecom companies and buy equipment from the five major telecom equipment manufacturers. The other was the harder path: to produce our own Radio Access Network (RAN) and core software, and build our own Base Transceiver Stations (BTS)."

This achievement was realized through a consortium: the government-owned company C-DoT producing the core software, the private startup Tejas producing the RAN, and TCS acting as the system integrator. Scindia said, "Within 19 months, we built our own 4G tech stack." Meanwhile, BSNL achieved its first quarterly operating profit in 18 years in the September and December quarters of 2025. Revenue grew from around 190 billion rupees to 220 billion rupees, with operating profit recently increasing from 21.95 billion rupees to over 51 billion rupees.

India has also achieved rapid 5G deployment, rolling out approximately 500,000 base stations in 22 months. Currently, 99.9% of the area is covered, and 35% of mobile subscribers (400 million users) are on 5G. Scindia indicated that India caught up on 4G, is on par with global peers on 5G, but now aims to lead the world in 6G technology. India is collaborating with international bodies like the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and 3GPP to shape 6G standards through the Bharat 6G Alliance, established in 2023, whose participants have grown from 18 to 100.

The alliance's mandate is to secure 10% of patents when 6G standards are established. Scindia also mentioned that India's vast postal network is being transformed into logistics fulfillment centers, undergoing business process re-engineering to support both virtual and physical sales.