Remarks by Jyotiraditya M. Scindia: “India will lead the world on 6G”

As digital networks extend their reach across geographies, the challenge of meaningful access, including the cost of the devices that enable it, has moved to the centre of the global inclusion debate. At the recently concluded Mobile World Congress 2026, Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, Union Minister of Communications and Development of North Eastern Region, outlined India’s five-pillar model for overcoming the device cost barrier, charted the country’s journey from a technology follower to an emerging co-creator with ambitions to lead the world on 6G, and offered a preview of the 10th edition of the India Mobile Congress (IMC), scheduled for October 2026 in New Delhi. Edited excerpts from his remarks…

The inclusion gap

If we look at the geographic map of the world and how telecom networks, much like the arterial system in the human body, have expanded their reach across geographies, the map of connectivity appears brightly illuminated. But meaningful access remains deeply uneven. Around 3.1 billion people across the world remain offline, and it is astounding to note that almost 50 per cent of them live in areas that already have full connectivity. The signal is present, but the access is absent. The key obstacle, in most cases, is not coverage. It is affordability.

In low- and middle-income countries, the cost of a handset can reach 30-40 per cent of monthly income, and in some countries it can go as high as 60 per cent. Data shows that for a device to be adopted at scale, its cost must fall below 5 per cent of monthly income. Similarly, device replacement cycles in developing countries run five to seven years, and in that period, applications evolve rapidly, platforms mature, services digitise and opportunities multiply. Therefore, a large segment of humanity is entirely left out of economic participation.

The gateway to the internet is not only about the towers we set up. A small 6-6.5 inch screen holds within it the aspirations of most of the world. Multiple device financing models can increase smartphone adoption by a third, and bundling arrangements can bring effective prices down by 30-40 per cent. Adoption accelerates most where value is immediate and visible. Take the fishermen who check weather reports before heading out to sea, or village entrepreneurs who can now access global marketplaces from their doorstep. Affordability gains momentum when opportunity arrives with it.

The question before us today is not whether we can afford digital inclusion. The question is whether we can afford digital exclusion.

India’s five-pillar response

India recognised this challenge early and built a response that addresses the entire value chain, from the cost of the device and the cost of data to financing models and digital service delivery. It is a comprehensive model working across every layer at once.

The first pillar was manufacturing. Through the production-linked incentive scheme, India provided strong incentives for manufacturers to move their operations and supply chains into the country. Less than a decade ago, India produced $2 billion worth of mobile phones annually. Today, that figure stands at $60 billion, and production has grown from roughly 50 million units to nearly 400 million units a year, making India the second largest mobile phone producer in the world. Over the same period, average unit prices have fallen from $85-$95 per unit to $50-$60.

The second pillar was financing. Four models were put in place to spread the cost of device ownership: zero-interest EMI purchases, bundled handset and data plans, operator-supported instalment schemes and microcredit arrangements. The objective was not to ask households to make a large one-time purchase. It was to allow them to manage monthly payments and participate in the digital economy at a pace that suited to their circumstances.

The third pillar was innovation, made possible by India’s scale. That scale enabled the production of ultra-low-cost smartphones, encouraged domestic brands to target underserved segments, drove innovation in low-cost chipsets and assembly, and supported a growing refurbishment market. That market alone has doubled in five years, from $5 billion to $10 billion today, reflecting the enormous depth of latent demand when the right conditions are in place.

The fourth pillar, and perhaps the most distinctive, was digital public infrastructure. India built its own digital stack, and the results are visible at an extraordinary scale. The unified payments interface now processes close to 20 billion transactions a month, amounting to roughly $4 trillion a year, and these are not large corporate transfers; they are small, granular exchanges of $2, $3 or $4, made by retailers and individuals in villages across the country, connecting them to a digital financial system for the first time. Similarly, the direct benefit transfer scheme has connected 530 million people in rural India to bank accounts and transferred close to $500 billion directly into those accounts over the past decade. When services of this kind become part of what a handset can deliver, the device becomes a tool for financial inclusion and a gateway to genuine economic participation.

The fifth pillar has been the deliberate and sustained bending of the cost curve downward. 10 years ago, 1 GB of data in India cost $3. Today, it costs 9 cents, a reduction of 97 per cent. This has been a personal priority at the highest levels of government, pursued with policy direction and technological intent. Technology, in this sense, has not merely been an enabler of connectivity. It has equalised opportunity.

A decade of compression

India’s past decade in telecom has been, in many ways, a compression of time. What once took several decades has been achieved in 10 years. Internet connectivity has grown from 250 million to over 1.1 billion users. Broadband connectivity has expanded from 60 million to over a billion consumers. Monthly data usage has risen nearly 400 times to an average of 32 GB per user, which is today among the highest in the world.

What makes this trajectory remarkable is not only the scale of the growth but the direction of cost. In economics, shifting the slope of a cost curve is difficult enough. Moving the entire cost curve downward, simultaneously and in parallel, across both voice and data, while expanding access at this pace, is profoundly harder. India managed both at once, and the results are visible not in statistics alone, but in the daily lives of all connected citizens who have been brought into the digital economy in the span of a single decade.

India’s experience offers a reference point for every developing nation grappling with this same challenge: that growing connectivity and falling cost are not mutually exclusive. They can, with the right policy architecture and sustained political will, move in the same direction at the same time.

From follower to co-creator

For too long, India was a follower in telecom technology. The global equipment sector was governed by a handful of companies from four countries. India, for the first time, has produced its own 4G stack, now being deployed by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), India’s state-run operator. Over 100,000 sites have been deployed in the past eight months, with close to 20 million subscribers already on the network. India is no longer only a services giant. It is becoming a product nation in telecom.

And we are not stopping at 4G. India followed the world on 4G and marched alongside it on 5G. I am very confident that India will lead the world on 6G. Through the Bharat 6G Alliance, India has committed to contributing approximately 10 per cent of standards inputs to both the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the 3rd Generation Partnership Project, a target being monitored on a quarterly basis. When a country builds standards, it shapes the direction of a technology, not merely adopts it.

That confidence is also reflected in the IMC, to be held at Yashobhoomi in New Delhi from October 7 to 10, 2026. An MoU has been signed between the GSMA and IMC, cementing India’s role at the centre of global telecom dialogue. With ministerial sessions, CXO forums, entrepreneurial platforms and policy roundtables all converging, the 10th edition of the IMC will pay rich dividends not only for India, but for the world of communications.

One family, one purpose

In the words of Dr Vikram Sarabhai, who built India’s space programme at a time when many questioned its relevance to a developing country, there must be “no ambiguity of purpose.” The application of technology is not a privilege; it is both a capability and an obligation to address the real needs of every single citizen.

India’s answer to the inclusion challenge rests on a founding principle: Vasudeva Kutumbakam, which means one family. If we align policy, financing, innovation and shared purpose, the small rectangle in every citizen’s hand becomes a tool of unmatched and unprecedented opportunity. We must, and I repeat this with full conviction, move towards a world that is truly connected across every geography, every income level, every language and every generation. This is not an aspiration. It is an obligation.