The Digital India initiative has reshaped governance over the past decade by democratising access to technology, building robust digital infrastructure, and fostering inclusivity. It has bridged gaps between urban and rural areas, rich and poor, and set a global benchmark for digital literacy. In 2013, internet penetration was limited to less than 250 million connections, and access to online government services was scarce. By 2025, this number surged to over 970 million. Thanks to the BharatNet project, over 420,000 kilometres of Optical Fibre Cable, equivalent to 11 times the distance between Earth and the Moon, now connects even the most remote villages. The National Broadband Mission aims for universal 50 Mbps connectivity by 2025, supporting India’s goal of a $5 trillion economy. Additionally, 250,000 Wi-Fi hotspots under BharatNet and affordable data plans have made India the most cost-effective internet economy, with data prices among the lowest globally.

PM Modi envisioned technology as a tool to empower the marginalised and eliminate inequality. As he noted in a LinkedIn blog post recently, “While decades were spent doubting the ability of Indians to use technology, we changed this approach and trusted the ability of Indians to use technology." Modi further writes, “India’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) from Aadhaar, CoWIN, DigiLocker, and FASTag to PM-WANI and One Nation One Subscription is now studied and adopted globally. CoWIN enabled the world’s largest vaccination drive, issuing 2.2 billion QR-verifiable certificates. DigiLocker, with 540 million users, hosts over 7.75 billion documents securely and seamlessly."

India’s 5G rollout, among the fastest globally, has seen 481,000 base stations installed in just two years, ensuring high-speed internet reaches urban hubs and remote outposts like Galwan, Siachen, and Ladakh. The India Stack, a set of digital public goods including Aadhaar, UPI, DigiLocker, and DigiYatra, has been the fulcrum of this transformation. Aadhaar provides a unique digital identity, while DigiLocker has digitized document access for millions. The Unified Payments Interface (UPI), launched in 2016, has revolutionized digital payments, handling roughly 19 billion transactions every single month and accounting for 50% of the world’s real-time digital payments. UPI’s global impact is evident, with countries like........

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