S. Krishnan, Secretary, MeitY
The Indian digital and electronics ecosystem has undergone a transformative shift over the years, driven by advancements in connectivity, artificial intelligence (AI) and manufacturing. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s (MeitY) proactive policy measures and initiatives have played a key role in fostering innovation, strengthening the country’s cybersecurity landscape and enhancing India’s position as a global technology leader. During various industry events in 2024, S. Krishnan, Secretary, MeitY, commented on India’s evolving digital landscape, key government initiatives, AI innovations, indigenous supercomputing efforts, and the role of electronics manufacturing in driving economic growth. Edited excerpts from some of his addresses…
Evolving internet landscape
The internet landscape has changed significantly over the past 20-25 years. From being a novelty, it has become the first line of communication. The internet has become ubiquitous, and since it has become an essential part of everyone’s daily life, it must be protected, conserved, made more resilient and, of course,
ensure that it is not misused. Consequently, several elements of internet governance have become significantly more important than before.
India, with over 955 million internet users, consumes it very differently from the rest of the world – 90 per cent of internet access in the country occurs via mobile data connections. For the rest of the world, over 90 per cent is based on wired connections and fibre optic networks. Mobile connectivity has been a game changer for India and has been at the core of telecom expansion. But is it resilient enough as a medium in the long run or should we be investing more in broadband networks?
The sector requires people from different fields who can dedicate time to internet governance and represent the real concerns of our society. Our goal is to inspire young minds to learn, grow and use their knowledge to make a positive impact in their organisations and communities, helping the internet grow in a fair and inclusive way. Today’s generation values experience over traditional stable jobs. NIXI’s Internet Governance internship is a great opportunity for youth passionate about digital policy, providing global exposure.
Empowering India’s AI future
MeitY’s IndiaAI and Meta have collaborated to advance open-source AI innovation, research and development, and skill development in India. These initiatives are pivotal for creating a robust ecosystem to enable groundbreaking research, skill development and open-source innovation, advancing AI technology while ensuring its responsible and ethical deployment. The initiative will support India’s ambitious goal of becoming a $5 trillion economy by equipping the nation’s youth to lead in the global AI arena, securing India’s position as a leader in technological advancement and economic growth.
Further, a multi-stakeholder approach is essential for AI adoption at population scale. The benefits of AI to the community are immense and prevent user harm in all scenarios. Going forward, AI will be one of the cornerstones for attaining the vision of Viksit Bharat@2047.
Electronic component manufacturing
Electronic component manufacturers should prioritise the country’s security interests when starting new projects. The government has been focusing on this issue and has instructed companies to ensure the country’s security interests while designing a project.
The supply chain industry should be resilient and not impacted by any external factors, including geopolitical risks. Supply chain constraints were witnessed in India during the Covid pandemic. Meanwhile, the global semiconductor supply chain is largely dominated by Taiwan.
India aims to build a trusted and resilient supply chain for the electronics manufacturing sector in partnership with the US. American firms have been instrumental in transforming India into a global hub for electronics manufacturing.
Climate change is another issue that the country must address, along with ongoing challenges in waste management and natural disasters. MeitY is working with several other departments to explore ways to mitigate the impacts of climate change.
Impact of Make in India
The Make in India initiative has had a tremendous impact on the electronics sector. Electronics has emerged as one of the most impactful sectors. The overall production of electronics in India at the beginning of 2014-15 was 1.9 trillion and it has grown to 9.52 trillion today, achieving a CAGR of 17.4 per cent, significantly faster than other sectors of the economy. Exports from India in the electronics manufacturing sector have also risen substantially, from about Rs 382.63 billion ($5.7 billion) in 2014-15 to Rs 2.41 trillion ($29.1 billion) at a CAGR of 22.7 per cent. This is also significantly faster than the growth of other export sectors.
Make in India’s achievement is, in a sense, premised on the electronics sector, with mobile phones being one of its key elements. In 2014-15, only 26 per cent of mobile phones being sold in India were manufactured domestically, while the rest were being imported. Today, 99.2 per cent of all mobile phones sold in the country are made in India. Around 325-330 million mobile phones are being domestically manufactured annually, and on average there are about a billion mobile phones in use in India. We have virtually saturated the domestic market and that is why there is a substantial uptick in mobile phone exports.
India has become the world’s second-largest mobile manufacturer, achieving an annual production value of Rs 4.1 trillion. Mobile phone exports reached approximately Rs 1.2 trillion in 2023-24, increasing 77 times from about Rs 15.66 billion in 2014-15. This is where the Make in India programme has achieved significant success, which is largely due to policy support from the government, especially in the form of the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for the mobile sector. This scheme has been among the most successful PLI schemes launched to date.
The overall production target has been surpassed, with the total value of production reaching Rs 6.661 trillion and investments amounting to Rs 91 billion. The scheme has also generated 122,613 jobs, which is as per the original target.
In addition, setting up a semiconductor manufacturing base in India has been the other big part of the Make in India initiative – something that the country has been attempting to achieve for over six decades. With the launch of the India Semiconductor Mission and the approval of five major projects of Micron Technology, Tata Electronics (two projects), CG Power and Kaynes, a real manufacturing base for semiconductors is being established in India.
Key initiatives
MeitY has launched the second edition of the Cyber Security Grand Challenge (CSGC 2.0), implemented by the Data Security Council of India. CSGC 2.0 is a major government-backed initiative with a focus on recognising start-ups offering innovative cybersecurity solutions. The problem statements are current and in sync with the latest cybersecurity threat landscape. This initiative will provide mentorship, capability building and market access, aligning with the goals of Digital India, Atmanirbhar Bharat and Viksit Bharat. People must drive change and develop home-grown, innovative security solutions to empower India’s digital journey.
Meanwhile, MeitY’s indigenisation efforts have reached more than 50 per cent with server nodes, interconnects and system software stack. To achieve complete indigenisation, we aim to develop indigenous high-performance computing processor AUM. The government and MeitY are committed to driving India towards a technologically sovereign future, harnessing supercomputing for national development and global leadership.
Further, as part of the government’s efforts to provide trusted digital service delivery, the National Blockchain Framework will play an important role in enabling security, trust and transparency for various citizen-centric applications. Stakeholders should work towards positioning India as a global leader in blockchain technology and proliferate the developed solutions for global adoption, leveraging it to drive economic growth, social development and digital empowerment.
