India’s ambitions of becoming a global digital power rest on an infrastructure paradox. The country has embraced cheap data, built one of the world’s largest online populations and is rapidly expanding its data-centre capacity. It now speaks confidently of artificial intelligence, digital public infrastructure and technological sovereignty. Yet a significant part of the physical network connecting this digital economy to the world remains concentrated, ageing and dependent on capabilities India does not control.

This is not a hypothetical weakness. International data does not travel through satellites floating harmlessly above geopolitical tensions. Almost all of it moves through fibre-optic cables laid across the ocean floor. Damage to these cables is commonplace, caused by anchors, fishing activity, natural events and equipment failures. Deliberate sabotage has become an additional concern as geopolitical competition increasingly extends to critical infrastructure. India’s particular problem is concentration. A large share of its westward international connectivity comes ashore within a small stretch of Mumbai’s coastline. Networks can reroute traffic when........

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