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Informist, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026

 

 

MUMBAI – The Union government is committed to connecting all 252,000 gram panchayats in India with internet within the next three to four years to enable economic mobility, Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said Thursday. "Through those gram panchayats, we will provide first mile, middle mile, and last mile connectivity to villages on demand," Scindia said, speaking at the Global Fintech Fest 2026.

 

The minister said the central government worked on the Unified Payments Interface, or UPI, to connect transactions, people, machines, and intelligence. "When we talk about the success of UPI, it has gone to nine countries at no cost to them. We look at taking this technology to the next 20 countries," he said. 

 

Learning from India's success story, the world can learn that innovation scales when the infrastructure is open, the minister said. "Inclusion scales when infrastructure is affordable, trust scales when infrastructure is secure," he said.

 

Given the rapid influx of connectivity and technology into our day-to-day usage across areas such as personal finance advice and quick credit assessment, Scindia said it is important to ring-fence connectivity. "(We must) put together firewalls to protect our citizens' financial security, because fraud can move in seconds. Compromised digital identities can cross platforms," he said. 

 

To protect citizens' financial and security interests, the government has launched Sanchar Sathi. The government has used artificial intelligence to develop its own model, 'Astra', which has helped disconnect 8.80 million mobile phone connections that were suspected of being used to commit fraud. 

 

India can create a nationwide trust grid for digital finance by leveraging sectors such as banks, telecom networks, and payment platforms to integrate privacy, consent, and security, Scindia said. "AI (artificial intelligence) and fintech cannot remain the privilege of corporates. It is imperative and mandatory that this tool must be available to every single citizen across the length and breadth of our country," he said.

 

Speaking about India's telecom connectivity, Scindia said the country has produced its own domestic '4G stack', which has been deployed across 100,000 towers. "We are now working on 5G... our 6G mission has already started," he said. As part of the Bharat 6G Alliance, India has pledged to provide 10% of the patents. "We were behind the world on 4G, we marched with the world on 5G, we will lead the world on 6G," he said, reiterating a position he has expressed in the past.   End

 

Reported by Anand JC and Sagar Sen

Edited by Saji George Titus

 

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