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01 Jul 2025, 10:48 am

NEW DELHI: Reflecting on a decade of digital transformation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday emphasised that Centres of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence (AI) are being established across India under his government. In a LinkedIn post, he detailed how the Digital India initiative has fuelled the country’s growth over the past ten years.

“India has championed humanity-first AI. The New Delhi Declaration on AI promotes innovation with responsibility,” he said, underlining the country’s commitment to ethical and inclusive technological development.

Recalling the bold beginning of Digital India a decade ago, Modi said: “When the intent is right, innovation empowers the less empowered. When the approach is inclusive, technology brings change to the lives of those on the margins.”

He highlighted that, under the $1.2 billion India AI Mission, India now offers access to 34,000 Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) at globally unmatched prices less than Rs 1 per GPU hour. “India is not just the most affordable internet economy, but also the most affordable compute destination,” the PM noted.

Modi expressed confidence that the next decade will be even more transformative, with India progressing from digital governance to global digital leadership. “Digital India has not remained a mere government programme but has become a people's movement,” he wrote, stressing its role in building an Aatmanirbhar Bharat and making India a trusted innovation partner for the world.

Addressing innovators, entrepreneurs, and dreamers, Modi said: “The world is looking at India for the next digital breakthrough. Let us build what empowers. Let us solve what truly matters. Let us lead with technology that unites, includes, and uplifts.”

He reiterated that Digital India is about democratic access, inclusive infrastructure, and equal opportunity. Highlighting the progress, he said India has laid over 42 lakh kilometres of Optical Fibre Cable (OFC), connecting even the remotest villages a distance equivalent to 11 times the stretch between the Earth and the Moon.

Modi reflected on the scepticism surrounding digital adoption a decade ago. “Ten years ago, we embarked on a bold journey into uncharted territory with great conviction,” he wrote, adding that the government chose to trust in Indians’ ability to adopt technology rather than doubting it. He countered earlier claims that technology would widen inequality, asserting instead that his government used it to bridge the gap between the haves and have-nots.

Referencing 2014 data, the PM said internet connections have surged from 25 crore to over 97 crore, while digital literacy has seen marked improvement. “Today, that question has been answered not just in data and dashboards, but in the lives of 140 crore Indians.”

He highlighted India’s rapid 5G rollout, with 4.81 lakh base stations installed in just two years, extending coverage even to forward military posts in Galwan, Siachen, and Ladakh.

On digital payments, Modi praised the India Stack and platforms like UPI, which now processes over 100 billion transactions annually, accounting for nearly half of all real-time digital transactions globally. He noted that over Rs 44 lakh crore has been transferred directly to citizens through DBT, saving Rs 3.48 lakh crore in leakages.

Under the SVAMITVA scheme, 2.4 crore property cards have been issued and 6.47 lakh villages mapped, resolving long-pending land ownership disputes.

The PM described ONDC (Open Network for Digital Commerce) as a transformative platform providing equitable market access and breaking digital monopolies. He also praised the GeM (Government e-Marketplace) portal for enabling ordinary citizens, including artisans and weavers, to sell directly to the government.

The GeM platform recently surpassed Rs 1 lakh crore in GMV in just 50 days, with 22 lakh sellers including over 1.8 lakh women-led MSMEs fulfilling orders worth Rs 46,000 crore.

Modi affirmed that India’s digital public infrastructure is now a global benchmark, citing platforms like Aadhaar, CoWIN, DigiLocker, FASTag, PM-WANI, and One Nation One Subscription as internationally recognised innovations.

He further highlighted that India is now among the top three start-up ecosystems globally, with over 1.8 lakh start-ups. “But this is more than a start-up movement; it is a tech renaissance,” he said, adding that India is excelling in AI skill penetration and AI talent concentration among its youth.