Minister of Communications, Jyotiraditya Scindia
The Minister of Communications, Jyotiraditya Scindia, said on Sunday the Indian industry should prioritise Atmanirbhar innovation over imitation, and emphasised that the country must build indigenous technological capabilities in the time of artificial intelligence (AI) and digital transformation.
Speaking at the Kautilya Economic Conclave, he highlighted that India developed its own 4G stack within 22 months, breaking into a space long dominated by a few global players, and the State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) was already rolling out services based on these stacks. He added that these 4G towers will switch to 5G network within next 6-8 months automatically.
“Today, India has entered the club with its own 4G standard. This is India’s innovation capability and innovation enterprise. But we are not going to rest. Within the next six to eight months, we will be switching these 4G towers to 5G networks and providing end-to-end 5G network capability across the length and breadth of India,” said Scindia.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recently unveiled 92,564 towers that connect Kashmir to Kanyakumari and Bharuch to Arunachal Pradesh in India with our own domestic 4G standard, he noted.
Scindia said innovation is thriving in India, where global majors are present in very large numbers.
“We also have innovation from domestic start-ups and entrepreneurs. We have got the second-largest mobile phone manufacturing happening in India. India today is really pioneering this communication AI Semicon value chain in the world. You are going to see a huge resounding echo of that in the India Mobile Congress (IMC),” said the Minister.
Delegations from 150 countries, 1,500 exhibitors, over 1,000 use cases of 4G and 5G, huge amounts of innovation looking at concepts of AI, quantum computing, and new hallmarks of technology will be a foundational part of the IMC 2025, he added.
Published on October 5, 2025
