The Digital India campaign of the Government of India has now entered a new phase. On completion of 11 years of this ambitious scheme, the government has made it clear that now its biggest focus will be on Artificial Intelligence (AI), semiconductor (chip) manufacturing and strengthening digital infrastructure.
Digital India program was started on 1 July 2015. Its objective was to provide digital facilities to every citizen of the country and to empower India digitally. In the last 11 years, this campaign has brought a big change in the fields of internet, mobile, digital payments and government services.
According to the government, internet connections in India have increased almost four times during this period. There has also been a huge decline in the price of mobile internet. Earlier, about Rs 269 had to be spent for 1 GB data, whereas now its price has come down to only Rs 8 to 10 per GB. For this reason, India has become one of the countries with the cheapest mobile internet in the world.
Now the biggest bet on AI
The government is now rapidly promoting Artificial Intelligence in the country through IndiaAI Mission. A budget of more than Rs 10,372 crore has been approved for this mission.
The government has created a facility of more than 45,000 GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) for AI research and developing new technology. Apart from this, work is being done on 15 big and small language models.
More than 12,500 data sets and 307 AI models have been made available on the AI Kosh platform so that researchers, startups and companies can develop new AI technologies.
AI training to millions of people
The government has launched 27 Data and AI Labs, 18 Centers of Excellence and 684 fellowships across the country to promote AI education and research. So far, more than 84 lakh (8.4 million) people have been trained in AI and new technologies through these training programs. Apart from this, more than 100 countries of the world participated in India AI Impact Summit 2026. During this program, investment proposals worth more than 200 billion dollars (about Rs 17 lakh crore) were also received in the AI sector.
Semiconductor manufacturing also accelerated
India no longer wants to remain only a country that uses mobiles and electronic goods, but also wants to become a major chip manufacturing centre. For this, 12 big projects have been approved under ‘India Semiconductor Mission’ (ISM). About Rs 1.64 lakh crore will be invested in these projects. The government has also supported 24 chip design projects and work on many new semiconductor projects is going on at a fast pace.
India’s big achievement in electronics and UPI
India’s electronics manufacturing sector has now become an industry worth Rs 13 lakh crore. Electronic products have now become India’s third largest export. Today India has also become the second largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world. India is also continuously making records in the field of digital payments. In the financial year 2025-26, 24,162 crore digital transactions took place through UPI. It accounts for 81% of India’s total digital payments and almost half of the world’s real-time digital transactions take place in India.
5G and internet reached every corner of the country
By March 2026, there will be 106.58 crore broadband customers in the country. Under the BharatNet scheme, 2.18 lakh gram panchayats have been connected to high-speed internet. Apart from this, 5G network has now reached 99.9% districts of the country. The government says that in the coming years, the next phase of Digital India will focus on making India the world’s leading digital economy through AI, semiconductor, digital services and new technologies.
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