Why India needs telecom champions

To anchor telecom manufacturing and future technology investments in India, the country must create global champions of Indian origin

- ANKIT AGARWAL

INDIA IS ONE of the world’s largest telecom markets, with nearly a billion internet users, and one of the fastest-growing digital economies. Yet it remains the only major power without a globally dominant telecom equipment manufacturer of its own. This absence is now becoming a strategic vulnerability and an impediment to safeguarding our telecom security and sovereignty.

The Atmanirbhar Bharat vision rightly seeks to ensure sovereignty across critical domains—energy, semiconductors, and most importantly, data. But pipelines that move data across our digital devices to servers and back are part of our telecom infra and are as critical to India’s long-term interests as our data. In 2026, owning the data but not the telecom infrastructure is like owning the gold but renting the armoured truck from a rival who has the keys.

The issue is all the more critical as the global telecom industry is entering a decisive phase. The next-generation networks will utilise technologies like 6G, satellite-terrestrial hybrid connectivity, cloud-native core networks, and ultrahigh-capacity fibre; and deliberations among global players will determine who sets standards and owns intellectual property. Naturally then, countries with globally competitive telecom manufacturers will command both technological and strategic influence. Those without them, like India, risk remaining large markets but marginal players.

Europe has Ericsson and Nokia; the US has Cisco and Juniper; China has Huawei and ZTE; and Japan has NEC. Each of these companies grew within supportive domestic ecosystems that provided early market access, regulatory alignment, fiscal support, and sustained investment in research and intellectual property.