India's untapped data goldmine is a key strategic asset for India

Why expanding domestic data capacity is not just an economic need, but a strategic asset for India's technological, geopolitical, and security resilience

India leads the world in digital data generation, with 450 million Facebook users, 540 million WhatsApp users, and 490 million YouTube users — the highest for each platform globally. Additionally, 82.6 per cent of email users in the country use Gmail, and 360 million are on Instagram. Despite producing an estimated 20 per cent of the world’s data, India lacks the infrastructure to fully harness this resource.

 

Countries capitalise on their natural strengths: China controls 70-80 per cent of rare earth processing, Australia dominates iron ore mining, and Chile leads copper production. Given India’s share of global data generation, it