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Mumbai, 11 September 2026: Union Minister of Communications and North Eastern Region Development Jyotiraditya M. addressing the 'Global Fintech Festival 2026' organized in Mumbai. Scindia laid special emphasis on the essential need for an inclusive, reliable and secure digital financial ecosystem. He had clearly stated that before any financial system can become 'intelligent', it is most important for it to be 'inclusive'. Describing telecom network as the basic foundation of fintech development, he said that connectivity, compute and trust together are creating a new 'Digital Trinity' (తిర్పుటి) of the digital finance world.

Minister Scindia underlined the role of widespread connectivity in India's digital transformation and said that a decade ago, only about 25 crore people in the country had access to the internet, which has now increased to about 100 crore. Broadband access in the country has increased from 6 crore to 103 crore, which shows an increase of approximately 16 times in the last 10 years. Availability of technology should be ensured not only in India but globally in every corner of the world.

In today's era, smartphones are no longer just a means of communication but are now playing the role of a new bank branches. Through smartphones, common citizens are getting all the facilities from internet connectivity to credit and investment at their doorstep. About 6.5 lakh villages of the country are being connected to this digital economy, due to which every village has become an integral part of the global fintech ecosystem.

• 5G to reach 99.9% districts of the country in 26 months

Talking about the extremely fast coverage of 5G service in India, Scindia said that the 5G service, which started in the year 2022, has reached 99.9 percent of the districts of the country in a short period of just 26 months and has covered about 85 percent of the population. This rapid 5G rollout is supported by more than 5 lakh base stations and a huge capex investment of Rs 4.5 lakh crore has been made in this sector. With this, India has become the cheapest data capital of the world, where data prices have come down to just 10 cents per GB.

• India's amazing dominance in UPI and global digital payments

Recalling the journey of Indian UPI, the Union Minister said that UPI, which started with only 90,000 transactions in the first month, has today expanded to more than 740 banks. In the financial year 2025-26, an estimated 24,162 crore transactions were processed through UPI, the total value of which was approximately Rs 314 lakh crore.

India alone accounts for approximately 49% of global real-time digital payment volume.
About 84% of the total digital transactions within the country are done only through UPI.
Following the ideas of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Vasudhaiva Kumpulakam', UPI technology has been extended to 9 countries without any cost, and the world is now considering taking this model to another 20 countries.

• Special emphasis on cyber security and 'predictive trust'

With increasing technology and intelligence, the responsibility of security also increases manifold. Emphasizing the need to set up strong firewalls and other security safeguards for the financial security of citizens, the Minister praised tools like 'Sanchar Sathi' and AI-based 'Astr', with the help of which more than 88 lakh suspicious mobile connections have been blocked. He had called for adopting a policy of 'predictive trust' in the financial sector instead of just 'reactive security'.

• Indigenous 4G stack and future 6G mission

Referring to India's self-reliant and indigenous efforts, Scindia said that India has now prepared its indigenous 4G telecom stack and work is also going on actively on 5G. The country's ambitious 6G mission has also been started, the main objective of which is to contribute 10 percent to global 6G patents and play a leading role in the development of its standards.

At the end of this speech, the Union Minister had given the message that India should 'innovate in India, serve India, serve the world and serve it safely.' Our ultimate objective is to move beyond 'Connected India' to 'Intelligent Digital Finance' and 'Empowered Finance'.