India can emerge as a ‘data hub’, says PM Modi at India Mobile Congress 2025

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday (October 8, 2025) pitched India as a potential “global data hub,” emphasising on the importance of “issues like storage, security and sovereignty” when it came to the data being generated around the world. “The world wants reliable partners for the design and manufacturing of telecom equipment,” he said. 

“Can’t Indian companies become reliable global suppliers and design partners?” Mr. Modi was speaking at the opening of the India Mobile Congress, held by the Department of Telecommunications. The established telcos in India “provide stability, scale and direction” in the telecom sector, and their role is “continuously increasing,” Mr. Modi said. 

The “Made in India 4G Stack” rolled out by state-owned telco BSNL was a “major swadeshi achievement,” Mr. Modi said. 

Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said in his remarks that India hoped to secure at least “10% of 6G patents,” to establish the country’s presence in developing the subsequent generation of telecommunications technology. Mr. Scindia called on Indian firms to “design here, solve for here, and scale for everywhere.”

States roundtable

At a roundtable held during the event with States and Union Territories around the country, officials discussed issues in implementing the rollout of the 4G saturation programme (led by the DoT’s Digital Bharat Nidhi, formerly the Universal Service Obligation Fund), and BharatNet, which aims to provide high speed fibre optic connectivity to all of India’s gram panchayats.

Tamil Nadu IT Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan urged Mr. Scindia during the discussion to “cap the market share” of telcos, so as to maintain a healthy market. Mr. Scindia said in response that the telecom industry was “deregulated”. 

Mr. Rajan also requested changes to the Right of Way portal, explaining that State-level issues were not accounted for in the site, which was why Tamil Nadu had not signed on to the model Right of Way rules, which provide a simplified framework for applications to local authorities in laying fiber cables and installing telecom equipment.