India’s National Digital Communications Policy 2018

August 2018

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Strategies and Action Plans

The National Digital Communications Policy 2018 of India is a comprehensive framework to transform the country’s digital landscape by 2022. The policy’s primary objectives are to ensure universal broadband access, create jobs, enhance the GDP contribution of the digital communications sector, and secure India’s position as a global leader in ICT.

Key objectives

  1. Broadband for All: Provide universal broadband connectivity with a minimum speed of 50 Mbps for every citizen.
  2. Job creation: Generating 4 million additional jobs in the digital communications sector.
  3. Economic growth: Increasing the sector’s contribution to 8% of India’s GDP.
  4. Global positioning: Propelling India into the top 50 nations in the ICT Development Index.
  5. Digital sovereignty: Ensuring data privacy, security, and sovereignty.

Strategic missions

The policy is structured around three strategic missions:

  1. Connect India: Establishing robust digital communication infrastructure.
  2. Propel India: Enabling next-generation technologies and services through investment, innovation, and intellectual property rights (IPR) generation.
  3. Secure India: Ensuring digital sovereignty, safety, and security of digital communications.

Connect India: Goals and Strategies

  1. Universal connectivity: Achieving universal broadband connectivity at 50 Mbps and providing 1 Gbps connectivity to all Gram Panchayats by 2020, and 10 Gbps by 2022.
  2. Public Wi-Fi: Deploying 10 million public Wi-Fi hotspots by 2022.
  3. Fibre first initiative: Promoting fibre optic deployment to homes, enterprises, and key development institutions.
  4. National digital grid: Establishing a grid for unified access and efficient infrastructure sharing.

Propel India: Goals and strategies

  1. Investment attraction: Attracting $100 billion in investments in the digital communications sector.
  2. Innovation and start-ups: Fostering innovation-led start-ups and creating globally recognized IPRs.
  3. Emerging technologies: Encouraging the adoption of 5G, AI, IoT, and cloud computing.
  4. Manufacturing: Boosting local manufacturing and participation in global value chains.

Secure India: Goals and strategies

  1. Data protection: Establishing a comprehensive data protection regime safeguarding privacy and autonomy.
  2. Network security: Developing robust security frameworks for digital communication networks.
  3. Disaster preparedness: Enhancing network resilience and establishing unified emergency response mechanisms.

Implementation and monitoring

The policy emphasizes regulatory reforms, institutional capacity building, and multi-stakeholder collaboration involving government, private sector, academia, and citizens. To ensure effective implementation, the Telecom Commission is re-designated as the Digital Communications Commission.

By focusing on these comprehensive strategies, the National Digital Communications Policy 2018 aims to position India as a global leader in the digital economy, fostering inclusive growth and ensuring digital empowerment for all its citizens.