According to information provided by the union minister for electronics and information technology, in Lok Sabha, in line with prime minister’s vision to democratise technology and empower citizens, the government of India had launched the Digital India programme in July 2015. Through this programme, India has bridged the digital divide using a three-pronged strategy: Increasing access to internet, making internet affordable and providing digital public infrastructure. This has resulted in inclusive digital growth.

Today, India is uniquely placed among the large economies which have successfully implemented digital public infrastructure.

Steps taken by government of India are as below:

  • Internet access has increased multifold in the last decade, increasing from 250 million users in 2014 to 1.03 billion in 2025. Rapid expansion of 4G and 5G networks, vast network of optical fibre cables, and focus on digital infrastructure has resulted in this massive increase in access to internet.
  • India has among the lowest data tariffs in the world, with an average cost per 1 GB $08- 0.10. India’s telecom tariffs are 25 times less than the global average.
  • India has developed a unique digital public infrastructure which has enabled large scale digital solutions for our people. Over 1.43 billion Aadhaar numbers have been generated, providing a universal digital identity. This has enabled access to welfare schemes and financial inclusion. Through Aadhaar-linked direct benefit transfers (DBT), cash benefits from various welfare schemes (328 schemes of 56 ministries) are directly transferred into beneficiaries’ bank accounts. This has done with the requirement of multiple documents and eliminated duplicate or fake beneficiaries. More than 16.600 billion authentications have been carried out by various organisations in order to avail various services. More than 106.7 million Aadhaar IDs have been generated in the state of West Bengal.
  • Unified payments interface (UPI) has enabled large-scale digital payment adoption with over 460 million users and billions of transactions monthly. This platform serves 650 million merchants, and connects 685 banks on one platform, making it the world’s largest digital payment system. UPI powers 81 per cent of India’s digital payments and nearly 49 per cent of global real-time digital payments.
  • The central government and state governments are empowered to issue orders for temporary suspension of internet to address the public emergency and public safety concerns. This is done as per the Telecommunication (Temporary suspension of Services) Rules, 2024 and the guidelines of supreme court in this regard.