New Delhi, June 22 (IANS). India has witnessed unprecedented transformation in the digital sector in the last 12 years. Once known only as a large digital consumer market, India is today making a strong mark globally in cutting-edge technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), semiconductor, quantum technology, supercomputing and data centers. The Digital India campaign, technological innovation and expansion of digital public infrastructure (DPI) have made India among the leading digital powers of the world. This information has been shared in an official fact sheet released on Monday.
The fact sheet said the government has continuously invested in technology infrastructure, research, startups and skill development over the last decade. As a result, a strong ecosystem of innovation has developed in the country. Work is being done on mission mode in areas like AI, semiconductor, quantum computing, cyber security and cloud computing, due to which India is moving rapidly towards technological self-reliance.
The Digital India program launched in 2015 laid the foundation of digital revolution in the country. Optical fiber networks expanded rapidly and high-speed Internet access reached villages. While the optical fiber network was 19.35 lakh route kilometers in the year 2019, it will increase to 42.36 lakh route kilometers by 2025.
India has also achieved significant achievements in the world’s fastest 5G network expansion. At present 5G services have reached about 99.9 percent of the districts in the country. The effect of better internet connectivity was that the number of internet connections increased from 25.15 crore in 2014 to 102.86 crore in 2026.
Similarly, broadband connections also increased from 6.1 crore in 2014 to 99.56 crore by December 2025. The increasing reach of Internet played a big role in making education, health, digital payments, e-commerce and government services available to the common people.
The statement said that the biggest reason for digital expansion has been the decreasing cost of internet. While the average price of 1 GB data was Rs 269 in 2014, now it has come down to only Rs 8 to 10 per GB. Per capita monthly data consumption has increased from 61.66 MB to 24.01 GB during the same period. Cheap internet has given rise to online education, telemedicine, digital banking and startup culture. Due to this, the digital economy in the country has expanded rapidly and the pace of adoption of new technologies has also increased.
India has made major achievements under the National Supercomputing Mission (NSM). Under this mission of Rs 4,500 crore, 38 supercomputers have been installed in major institutions of the country, whose combined capacity is 47 petaflops. The biggest achievements of this mission include the development of the indigenous ‘Param Rudra’ supercomputer series. These supercomputers developed with Indian technology are strengthening the country’s self-reliance in high performance computing.
According to the statement, the Rs 76,000 crore Semiconductor India program launched in December 2021 has given a new direction to the chip manufacturing industry in the country. The objective of this scheme is to make India an important part of the global electronics supply chain.
The government has also announced India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) 2.0 in the Union Budget 2026-27. 12 major projects worth about Rs 1.64 lakh crore have been approved by June 2026, which include one semiconductor fab, two compound semiconductor units and nine packaging units. These projects will boost chip manufacturing in the country and reduce dependence on imports.
The government had launched the Rs 6,003.65 crore National Quantum Mission in April 2023. This mission focuses on the development of quantum computing, quantum communications, quantum sensors and quantum devices.
Four specialized quantum research centers have been set up in premier institutes of the country, where more than 150 researchers are working. India has also successfully demonstrated a 1,000 km long secure quantum communication network, a feat achieved six years ahead of schedule.
In February 2026, the foundation stone of the country’s first ‘Quantum Valley’ was also laid in Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh, which will become the major center of future quantum research and innovation.
The fact sheet states that Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become one of the most influential technologies in the world today and India is progressing rapidly in this field. The government had launched the India AI Mission in 2024 with an investment of over Rs 10,300 crore, which aims to promote AI research, startups, computing capacity and skill development in the country. As of March 2026, there are about 1.8 lakh startups active in India, of which about 89 percent are using AI technology in some form or the other.
A shared computing facility with more than 38,000 GPU capacity is being developed under the AI Mission. Apart from this, more than 12,115 datasets and 306 AI models have been made available on the ‘AI Kosh’ platform, which is giving new impetus to research and innovation.
India’s data center industry is also expanding rapidly amid increasing demand for cloud computing, AI and digital services. The country’s data center capacity was approximately 375 MW in the year 2020, which is estimated to increase to 1,500 MW by 2025.
The government said that cities like Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Noida and Jamnagar are emerging as major data center hubs. Apart from this, many large hyperscale and AI-centric data centers are being developed in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.
–IANS
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