Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 10th edition of the Indian Mobile Congress on Thursday. Speaking at the event, the PM said India’s digital ecosystem had shown how to “Scale Without Boundaries.” He used his address to highlight the expansion of telecom access, digital governance and online education in the country. Referring to the summit theme, he said the platform had, over the years, emerged as a stage for “India’s progress and India’s dreams.”
PM Modi explained that telecom in India had come to mean much more than networks, spectrum, towers and speed. “Over the past 10–12 years, mobile phones have not only served as a medium of modern communication but have also emerged as an essential tool for good governance,” he said, adding that this lay at the core of the government’s Digital India vision.
Digital India mission tackled digital divide
Prime Minister Narenda Modi claimed that until a decade ago, the digital divide had been a major challenge in India, with modern technology becoming a privilege available mainly to those with resources. “Through the Digital India mission, we resolved to change this landscape, placing the mobile phone right at its center,” PM Modi added.
Calling it a major push towards the democratisation of technology, Modi said reforms were undertaken in the telecom sector, and infrastructure was expanded rapidly. At the same time, local manufacturing of smartphones also saw major growth. The PM noted, “Through every such endeavor, access to mobile phones and data became significantly easier for the average Indian citizen.”
PM Modi said the strength of this ecosystem became especially visible during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Yet, in India, offices continued to run. Work went on. Education never stopped. This was made possible by India’s digital ecosystem.
Highlighting education reforms linked to telecom expansion, PM Modi referred to the DIKSHA platform. During the pandemic, up to July 2022, the Prime Minister said, the platform recorded “over 5 billion learning sessions and nearly 60 billion learning minutes.” He said the goal across digital and online education channels was to connect nearly 250 million students. “In other words, the telecom revolution has directly benefited every citizen of India,” he said. With Covid-19 also playing a major role in this push towards digital learning.
Gaming and creator economy
A key part of the digital ecosystem revolves around content creation and gaming. Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted that this had led to new avenues of economic growth, “Take the gaming sector, for example. It is estimated that today, more than 500 million people in India are connected to the gaming ecosystem in some way,” he added.
PM Modi explained, “In other words, in India, the mobile phone today is not just a gaming console—it has also become a creation studio.” As per Narendra Modi, the mobile phone had played a pivotal role in shaping the creator economy in the country. “The mobile phone has also democratised content creation in India,” he said.
Global framework for cybercrime
At the same time, cybercrimes have become a challenge in the digital space. PM Modi pointed out that for a common citizen, it becomes a real concern. “An ordinary citizen does not think in terms of protocols or architecture. For them, trust is extremely important,” he noted.
To tackle the concern of cybercrime, PM Narendra Modi urged for a global framework. “Cyber fraud and cybercrime do not respect borders. They have already crossed those boundaries,” he said. “Therefore, it is important that we work towards a global framework to address this. Governments, technology companies, telecom operators and financial institutions—all of them will have to be part of this framework.”
PM Modi also asked telecom operators to work together in ensuring that spam fraud and similar scams can be prevented. “I also urge the GSMA and telecom operators around the world: let us create a global mechanism that can prevent such fraud from reaching people in the first place,” he said. “India has learned a great deal from its own experience in this direction, and India is always ready to share its experiences with the world.”
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