Creative destruction will be brought upon by Al, says Telecom Minister Scindia at Rising Bharat Summit 2026

Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya M. Scindia said artificial intelligence will usher in a phase of "creative destruction", but stressed that the technology will create far more opportunities than it extinguishes. He was speaking at the Rising Bharat 2026 session.

In conversation with Dr Nalin Mehta, Managing Editor, Moneycontrol.com, Scindia said AI would mark another major inflection point for the country.

"It will create more opportunities than it displaces. There is going to be a huge intellectual opening for creativity," he noted, adding that India is poised to take the lead across emerging technology domains.

Scindia observed that the country is undergoing a structural shift driven by innovation. "The next revolution is going to come from technology, and we have to move from being a services nation to a product nation," he said, pointing to the government's push for semiconductor manufacturing. "I never thought we would be setting up semiconductor fabs in India," he remarked, highlighting the scale of ambition.

On telecom, the minister described 5G as a turning point in India's digital journey. After years of following global mobile technology trends, India achieved the fastest 5G rollout in the world within just 22 months. Today, out of 120 crore mobile subscribers, 40 crore are already on 5G, reflecting what he called ubiquitous connectivity nationwide. The government expects that number to rise to 100 crore 5G users by 2030.

Looking ahead to 6G, Scindia said India will, for the first time, assume a standard-setting role globally. "With 6G, India will be in a standard-setting role. Our proposal of ubiquitous connectivity has been accepted as part of 6G standard setting," he said, adding, "We are no longer following the world."