Think back to 2015. For most of India, particularly the local street vendor, the small-scale farmer in a remote village, or the student down the street, access to the digital world was a daily tightrope walk. A large download or a sudden need for an online transaction could consume a large part of a family's monthly entertainment budget. In the past, high-speed connections were mostly reserved for the rich and the privileged, the white-collar urban office, and the rest of the population was left entirely vulnerable to the growing digital divide.

The new telecom tracking data paints a completely different picture. India's digital safety net has grown at an astounding rate, as seen in the graph above. In less than a decade, the total number of internet subscriptions in the country has more than tripled, from 302.36 million in 2015 to 743.19 million in 2020 and to 969.10 million in 2025.

This is an explosion of connectivity that is massive and fast, and has been attracting a lot of attention around the world. It has been described by international technology companies as one of the fastest digital growths in history, and it is the first time that online data and infrastructure have been so democratised. The backbone of this heavy lifting was a strong digital ecosystem that most citizens use daily. The ecosystem was able to circumvent the old connectivity constraints through competitive telecom reforms, huge optical fibre rollouts and secure digital identity frameworks. Communities are no longer isolated from information in a system, but can now access it at high-speed with a click.

At the level of the ground, this transformation is effected by a few mega-schemes and infrastructure drives that address the fundamental fears of everyday communication. The flagship Digital India campaign and BharatNet initiative are among the significant factors contributing to this development. In these schemes, thousands of gram panchayats are given high-speed broadband. This shift in the market has set the stage for low-cost data security for millions of homes at a time when global data costs were still high. Localised public Wi-Fi hotspots, known as *PM-WANI*, are another anchor, providing low-cost internet connectivity in thousands of rural and semi-urban areas.

In addition to these flagship projects, the digital payment networks have been widely adopted and facilitated more than a billion transactions per month, providing a formal internet economy identity and market access for small-scale operators. Remarkably, the vast majority of these new connections are in rural areas, unlocking the potential for vital e-governance, digital education and telemedicine opportunities. Mobile tower infrastructure has also enabled citizens to have access to the network without any cost, providing a lifeline for communication for high-risk manual workers and remote populations.

The tangible results of these interventions are clearly reflected in the financial inclusion indicators of India, where hundreds of millions of people have been able to get into the formal digital economy over the past decade. However, the job is only partially done. A portion of the population—amounting to millions of citizens in highly isolated geographical pockets—is still outside this high-speed connectivity umbrella. The next step on this digital journey will involve the integration of state-specific e-services with central satellite databases, and greater outreach to marginalised and elderly citizens. Now, the policy makers are targeting the 100-crore subscriber target, and the objective is obvious: to make sure that no Indian family is left to face the modern world without a mobile phone.