Affordable access must be a right; telecom showed the way: Scindia

Access with affordability should be a right across every industry, Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Monday, citing sharp fall in voice and data tariffs and the exponential rise in internet and broadband users as evidence of how India has expanded its digital access.

Backing his argument with figures, Scindia said voice call rates have fallen from Rs 16 per minute in the 1990s to becoming free, while data costs have dropped 97 per cent from Rs 287 per GB in 2014 to about Rs 8 per GB currently.

Internet users have risen from around 250 million earlier, to over 1.1 billion today, while broadband connections have crossed the one-billion mark, he said.

 

"That is not additive. That is multiplicative, and that is what we have been able to do in India. Access with affordability has to be a right in every vertical, in every industry across the length and breadth of our country. And telecom has shown the path, has shown the way," the Minister said addressing the Indian Foundation for Quality Management (IFQM) Symposium 2026.

He noted technology is a dependent variable and can only be a amplifier.

"...Technology can only be an amplifier, and the ability of technology to have a multiplier effect depends on the quality of signal that is inputted into it as an amplifier," he said.

India's focus on building core strengths qualitatively, quantitatively and process wise will enable the nation to radiate outwards to the rest of the world.

The focus, Scindia said, should be on five interconnected factors - quality, intent, innovation, technology and self-reliance.

Intent creates ambition, quality turns that ambition into outcomes while innovation converts those outcomes into "leapfrog capabilities", which technology such as artificial intelligence can then scale without diluting the integrity of core message, Scindia said. Atmanirbharta or self reliance he added, ensures that the foundation remains under India's control.

Scindia said this approach would strengthen the value chain of "Brand India", with every product, from steel and automobiles to software, telecom products and FMCG goods, contributing to global trust in Indian products.