‘Leveraging power of technology’: Modi reflects on India’s digital progress in last 11 years
Nearly 99.5% of Indians aged 15-29, who can make online banking transactions, said they are capable of using UPI for digital payments.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday reflected on the country’s progress in technology and digital public infrastructure over the past decade as the BJP-led government marked 11 years in office last month, and credited the role of young Indians in shaping and driving many of these changes.
“Leveraging the power of technology has brought innumerable benefits for people. Service delivery and transparency have been greatly boosted. Furthermore, technology has become a means of empowering the lives of the poorest of poor,” PM Modi said in a post on X.
The Prime Minister also shared a post by the IT ministry-led MyGovIndia, summarising key digital developments over the past decade. Titled ‘Tech it to the top’, the post highlighted, among other things, a 2,500-fold increase in Unified Payment Interface (UPI) transaction volumes over the past eight years, and its expansion to over seven countries, including a recent entry into Europe via France.
According to the recent National Statistical Office’s Comprehensive Modular Survey: Telecom 2025, nearly 99.5% of Indians aged 15-29, who can make online banking transactions, said they are capable of using UPI for digital payments.
In a separate post, the Centre shared updates on its Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) system, which it said helped transfer over ₹44 lakh crore across 322 schemes and saved ₹3.48 lakh crore by cutting out leakages. The scale-up of Aadhaar, now used by over 1.4 billion people, was also presented as a pillar of digital governance.
The post also touched upon India’s innovations in the drone sector, mentioning how it has empowered rural women in initiatives like ‘Drone Didis’ to strategic deployments in Operation Sindoor.
“Our self-reliance is soaring with 550+ Indian drone companies emerging, and 14,000+ SwaYaan beneficiaries ready to fly,” the post read.
In the field of artificial intelligence, the government said it has supported the development of AI Centres of Excellence and AI tools such as Chitralekha (an open-source video transcreation platform) and Everest 1.0 (a multilingual AI model developed under the Hanooman project).
The government also lauded the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM), a ₹1.55-lakh-crore production-PLI scheme aimed at attracting investment and promoting local chip design. The mission, launched by the IT ministry in 2021, has so far approved six semiconductor units across Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Assam, with many more to be announced soon.
In the space sector, ISRO’s launch of 393 foreign satellites was cited as a marker of progress, along with a proposed goal of setting up a Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS) by 2035.
Finally, the government noted that its digital literacy campaign in rural areas, PMGDISHA, had trained over 6.3 crore individuals achieving its targets ahead of schedule.
The campaign comes as part of a broader effort by the government to showcase achievements across sectors, as it completes over a decade in office since PM Modi took over on May 26, 2014.
