Indian Economy News

From Physical Infrastructure to Population-Scale Tech Rails: India Offers a Transformative Growth Story to the World, says Union Minister of State for Communications, Dr. Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani

Union Minister of State for Communications Dr. Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani highlighted India’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) as a transformative model for inclusive and resilient economic development while addressing an international delegation comprising ministers, policymakers, academicians and industry leaders from BRICS nations. He said India has moved beyond the conventional infrastructure narrative centred on roads, ports and power grids towards population-scale digital rails encompassing identity, banking, payments, verifiable documents and consented data. The Minister highlighted the open and interoperable architecture of India’s DPI, which enables banks, fintech enterprises and government departments to develop diverse services. He noted that the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) connects 720 banks, processes 85% of India’s digital transactions and contributes to nearly 49% of global real-time payment volumes, while expanding to nine partner nations. The Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) portal integrates 318 schemes across 56 ministries, while DigiLocker has more than 700 million users and 9 billion issued verifiable credentials. Initiatives including the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), Government e-Marketplace (GeM) and Account Aggregator framework are further expanding access to digital markets and data-enabled services.

India’s digital infrastructure expansion is supported by rapid growth in telecommunications. The Minister stated that 4G mobile coverage now reaches nearly 99% of villages, supported by a Rs. 38,600 crore (US$ 4 billion) saturation drive, while more than 500,000 5G base stations have been deployed. The BharatNet mission, backed by an investment of Rs. 1.62 lakh crore (US$ 17 billion) is expanding high-speed optical fibre connectivity across major villages. India has also achieved 12.4% green energy usage across mobile towers, against a national target of powering 30% of telecom infrastructure through renewable energy by 2030. Dr. Pemmasani called for stronger BRICS digital cooperation through modular, open-source technology frameworks, joint capacity building and greater collaboration in international ICT standard-setting. He emphasised that DPI could support sustainable development across the Global South by enabling inclusive digital services and reducing technology access barriers.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.