Digital India: PM Modi's Giant Leap Of Faith
In 2013, internet penetration was limited to less than 250 million connections, and access to online government services was scarce. By 2025, this surged to over 970 million.
The Digital India initiative has reshaped governance over the past decade by democratising access to technology, building robust digital infrastructure, and fostering inclusivity. It has bridged gaps between urban and rural areas, rich and poor, and set a global benchmark for digital literacy. In 2013, internet penetration was limited to less than 250 million connections, and access to online government services was scarce. By 2025, this number surged to over 970 million. Thanks to the BharatNet project, over 420,000 kilometres of Optical Fibre Cable, equivalent to 11 times the distance between Earth and the Moon, now connects even the most remote villages. The National Broadband Mission aims for universal 50 Mbps connectivity by 2025, supporting India's goal of a $5 trillion economy. Additionally, 250,000 Wi-Fi hotspots under BharatNet and affordable data plans have made India the most cost-effective internet economy, with data prices among the lowest globally.
PM Modi envisioned technology as a tool to empower the marginalised and eliminate inequality. As he noted in a LinkedIn blog post recently, 'While decades were spent doubting the ability of Indians to use technology, we changed this approach and trusted the ability of Indians to use technology." Modi further writes, 'India's Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) from Aadhaar, CoWIN, DigiLocker, and FASTag to PM-WANI and One Nation One Subscription is now studied and adopted globally. CoWIN enabled the world's largest vaccination drive, issuing 2.2 billion QR-verifiable certificates. DigiLocker, with 540 million users, hosts over 7.75 billion documents securely and seamlessly."
India's 5G rollout, among the fastest globally, has seen 481,000 base stations installed in just two years, ensuring high-speed internet reaches urban hubs and remote outposts like Galwan, Siachen, and Ladakh. The India Stack, a set of digital public goods including Aadhaar, UPI, DigiLocker, and DigiYatra, has been the fulcrum of this transformation. Aadhaar provides a unique digital identity, while DigiLocker has digitized document access for millions. The Unified Payments Interface (UPI), launched in 2016, has revolutionized digital payments, handling roughly 19 billion transactions every single month and accounting for 50% of the world's real-time digital payments. UPI's global impact is evident, with countries like Singapore, UAE, and France adopting similar systems and Namibia deciding to do so after Modi's recent visit to this South African nation. UPI's interoperability has empowered small vendors and street hawkers, integrating them into the formal economy.
The Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) system, built on the JAM Trinity (Jan Dhan, Aadhaar, Mobile) and driven by the 'humanity first" approach, has set a global benchmark, facilitating the transfer of over Rs 44 lakh crore to beneficiaries across 322 schemes, thereby saving Rs 3.48 lakh crore by eliminating inefficiencies. Platforms like the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) have revolutionized public procurement. In FY 2024–25, GeM clocked Rs 1 lakh crore in gross merchandise value (GMV) within 50 days, with 2.2 million sellers, including 180,000 women-led MSMEs, fulfilling orders worth Rs 46,000 crore.
The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), launched in 2022, has crossed 200 million transactions, with the last 100 million added in just six months. ONDC enables artisans from places like Varanasi, Mizoram, Odisha, and Nagaland to access nationwide markets without intermediaries. Other platforms like e-NAM connect 17.6 million farmers to over 1,000 markets, enhancing agricultural incomes. Digital tools like Kisan Suvidha provide real-time weather and market information, helping farmers make informed decisions. The AgriStack initiative, integrating land records and farmer data, further streamlines access to subsidies and loans.
In education, platforms like SWAYAM and DIKSHA have delivered over 2,200 courses to 40 million students, especially in far-flung areas, thereby bridging learning gaps in small hamlets and villages, with professors from IITs and IIMs ready to impart quality education at the click of a button. In healthcare, the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) has created 780 million ABHA IDs and linked over 520 million health records, revolutionizing healthcare delivery through telemedicine. The e-Sanjeevani platform has served over 360 million patients, bringing medical consultations to underserved areas. Programs like the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDisha) have made 60 million rural households digitally literate, enabling them to access government services online.
The $1.2 billion India AI Mission has provided access to 34,000 GPUs at less than $1 per GPU hour, making India the most affordable compute destination. The New Delhi Declaration on AI promotes responsible innovation, and the establishment of AI Centres of Excellence is nurturing talent. India's G20 presidency under PM Modi further amplified its global influence by launching the Global DPI Repository and a $25 million Social Impact Fund to help nations in Africa and South Asia adopt inclusive digital ecosystems. In rural areas, Common Service Centres (CSCs) have brought governance to the doorsteps of commoners. Schemes like SVAMITVA have issued over 24 million property cards and mapped 647,000 villages, ending years of land-related uncertainty. India now ranks among the top 3 Startup ecosystems in the world, with over 180,000 Startups, thanks to digitisation. This is more than a Startup movement; it is a tech revolution. Additionally, the focus on semiconductors, with projects like the Foxconn-HCL display chip unit, positions India as a reliable player in global supply chains.
The Modi government's focus on inclusive AI and cybersecurity will ensure sustainable growth, while initiatives like the National Quantum Mission position India at the forefront of emerging technologies. From artisans in Uttarakhand to farmers in Madhya Pradesh, from students in Assam to mothers in Maharashtra, Digital India has touched lives in profound ways, proving that technology can be a force multiplier.
In the last few years, the Modi government's push for financial inclusion has deepened with the promotion of the Account Aggregator (AA) Framework — a foundational piece of digital public infrastructure (DPI). The AA Framework empowers consumers and businesses across regions and economic segments to have greater control over their financial data. It enables them to access services such as loans, insurance, and investment advice securely and easily, with just a tap on the smartphone. Since its inception in 2022, the AA ecosystem has expanded rapidly, growing from 24 to over 750 regulated entities (REs) as of May 2025.
The ecosystem comprises Financial Information Providers (FIPs), Financial Information Users (FIUs), and Account Aggregators (AAs) that act as secure intermediaries between the two. FIPs and FIUs include banks, insurers, stockbrokers, and a host of other regulated financial institutions. Numbers published by Sahamati, promoting the AA ecosystem, note that as of June 2025, over 181 million consumer accounts are linked to Account Aggregators. This means that over 181 million Indians can now access secure, regulated financial services, often within hours, not days. 'AAs have facilitated an estimated 9 per cent of all personal and consumer durable loans disbursed in FY25," says BG Mahesh, CEO of Sahamati.
And the positive impact doesn't stop there. Each month, over Rs 15,000 crore in loans are disbursed through the AA ecosystem. This has transformed access to credit, enabling eligible borrowers to procure loans from trusted institutions any time, any day, through a highly secure and automated process. As of June 2025, over 248 million customer consents have been processed by FIPs. This milestone signals two major shifts: one, that banks and financial institutions can serve more customers faster and with reduced processing costs; and two, digitally savvy consumers in India are increasingly embracing consent-based, friction-free access to financial services.
To summarise, the Digital India mission, thanks to Modi's incisive foresight, has transformed India from a digital backbencher to a global digital leader. As PM Modi noted, 'Digital India has not remained a mere government programme; it has become a people's movement." With its focus on innovation, digital literacy, utility, connectivity, and affordability, Digital India is paving the way for an India where technology unites and is the binding glue; an India where digitisation is not just a policy framework but a great equalizer. The CoWIN platform, developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, facilitated the world's largest, fastest, and safest vaccination drive, showcasing the power of digital infrastructure during times of crisis. PM Modi's reforms have always been citizen-centric, with no room for lethargy or red-tapism, and India's digital renaissance is no different. Modi's Digital India mission is a testament to his philosophy of 'Minimum Government, Maximum Governance," ensuring that the accompanying dividends are democratised and benefit those who need them the most.
Sanju Verma is an Economist, National Spokesperson for BJP, and Bestselling Author of 'The Modi Gambit'. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18's views.
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July 11, 2025, 16:02 IST
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