India is fast-tracking its telecom transformation — positioning itself not only as a global telecom equipment powerhouse but also as the builder of a rapidly expanding digital carriageway spanning manufacturing, applications and next-generation technologies, Union Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said in an exclusive interaction with Moneycontrol.
From 5G use cases and emerging 6G capabilities to AI, Open RAN and Ethernet innovation, India’s footprint is becoming increasingly prominent across the global technology landscape, even as the government rolls out structural reforms to strengthen players like BSNL and deepen the country’s digital ecosystem, he added.
Highlighting India’s growing presence at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), Scindia pointed to the Bharat Pavilion as evidence of the country’s expanding technological and manufacturing strength.
“The Bharat Pavilion is a permanent fixture at the MWC. It is a testament to India’s capability and the size of the telecom market, but also to our strengths in services as well as products. India today is a telecom manufacturing powerhouse across the spectrum — not only in terms of legacy technologies such as 4G and 5G, but also advancing into 6G technology.”
He underscored the breadth of India’s innovation footprint. “Our 5G use cases, 6G capabilities, areas of AI, Open RAN, Ethernet — every possible innovation that is happening today across the globe has an element of an India connect in it.”
Sharing his experience walking through the pavilion, the minister said, “This Bharat Pavilion, which has been launched today, is a testament to that. I’ve spent about the last 20–25 minutes going from stall to stall, and the capability not only of our larger companies, but also our entrepreneurs across the telecom equipment manufacturing space, is tremendous.”
India’s shift from an import-dependent market to an exporter of telecom equipment, he added, has been driven by policy support. “A country that was hugely dependent on imports of telecom equipment has today begun to hugely export telecom equipment. The Prime Minister’s resolve through the PLI scheme has paid extremely rich dividends — close to about Rs 1,00,000 crore worth of additional sales, Rs 25,000 crore worth of exports, and 30,000 jobs created. India is moving very, very fast down that curve,” he told Moneycontrol at the Mobile World Congress 2026.
On the overall health of the telecom sector, Scindia said the industry’s resilience is visible on the global stage. “When I am at the World Mobile Congress — both last year in 2025 and this year in 2026 — the robustness of the Indian telecom industry comes to the fore. We have four players in India. There are very few countries in the world where you still have four telcos participating so dynamically.”
He noted the scale and diversity of India’s telecom base. “Whether you have 40 crore subscribers at one end or nine-and-a-half crore subscribers at the other end, you have the full spectrum of services supplied by four telcos.”
Expanding on the broader ecosystem, he said, “As I have already spoken about the telecom manufacturing ecosystem, you now have the value chain being laid out all the way from fabs to the digital expressway to AI.”
He also highlighted India’s growing role in global AI conversations. “The India AI Impact Summit was a runaway success, with a large number of visitors and 130 countries represented worldwide. India is now part of Pact Silica.”
Summing up the country’s trajectory, Scindia said, “So India is moving very, very quickly — not only in terms of being a telecom equipment force, but also building that digital carriageway, carrying with it the capability of providing content through that pipeline. And that content is both on the equipment manufacturing side as well as the application side.”
On state-run BSNL, the minister emphasised that reforms are beginning to yield results. “We have already taken a number of steps. The government has worked very hard at empowering BSNL, and over the last year BSNL has done a tremendous job from its financial aspect as well as its customer base.”
He detailed the improvements in subscriber numbers and profitability. “We have grown from 8.5 crore subscribers to almost 9.27 crore subscribers. On an EBITDA basis, we have grown from last year’s EBITDA of close to Rs 2,300 crore to almost Rs 5,200 crore. We are looking at double-digit growth again this year on EBITDA.”
“We put in place the highest CAPEX ever in BSNL’s history last year, which is close to Rs 25,000 crore. So we are hopefully powering ahead,” he added.
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