“Regulation is not a fence to restrict—it is a garden to be nurtured”: India Calls for Global Shift in Digital Governance at GSR 2025
“Regulation is not a fence to restrict—it is a garden to be nurtured”: India Calls for Global Shift in Digital Governance at GSR 2025
In a virtual address at the International Telecommunication Union’s Global Symposium for Regulators (GSR) 2025 being hosted in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Union Minister of Communications, Shri Jyotiraditya M. Scindia articulated a bold call to action for the global regulatory community: to evolve from gatekeepers into builders of inclusive digital ecosystems. Participating in the high-level Executive Roundtable on the theme “What does it take for regulators to become digital ecosystem builders?”, the Minister positioned India as a global model of regulatory transformation anchored in vision, trust, and inclusive innovation.
The Global Symposium for Regulators (GSR) is an annual flagship event organized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), where heads of national ICT regulatory authorities, policymakers, industry leaders, and digital experts from over 190 countries converge to discuss critical regulatory challenges in the telecommunication and ICT sectors
This year, the 25th edition of GSR–25 being hosted by the Saudi Arabia, in collaboration with the ITU, from 31 August to 3 September in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia is based on theme “Regulation for sustainable digital development”.
Delivering his address to a distinguished global audience, the Minister likened GSR as a beacon of international cooperation, and described it as a space “where wisdom embraces innovation, and where together we chart the course of our shared digital destiny.” The Minister highlighted that “This year’s theme—Regulation for Sustainable Digital Development— resonates with urgency and hope.”
Responding to the session’s core question, Minister Scindia outlined three key dimensions that define a regulator’s new role as a digital ecosystem builder. First, regulators must move from reactive rule-setting to proactive ecosystem design. This includes enabling frameworks for public digital infrastructure and interoperable platforms. Second, they must catalyse innovation by creating regulatory sandboxes, offering a safe space to test new ideas without compromising user safety or market stability. And, Third, regulators must embed trust at the heart of the digital economy—through citizen-centric policies, grievance redressal mechanisms, and strong data protection standards.
India’s experience was offered as an example of this shift in action. The Minister highlighted the transformative impact of India’s 5G rollout—achieving 99.9% district coverage across 776 districts, connecting over 300 million users, and powering the world’s highest per capita data usage.
Policy reform has played a central role in this progress. The Telecommunications Act, 2023, and Telecom Cybersecurity Rules, 2024, replaced colonial-era legacies with a legal architecture fit for the AI and quantum age. The Digital Bharat Nidhi, India’s new digital universal service fund, exemplifies a model for public-private partnership that ensures last-mile connectivity and digital equity.
He pointed to flagship Indian initiatives—Aadhaar, Jan Dhan Yojana, PM-WANI, BharatNet, and India Post—as demonstrations of how regulation can seed and scale digital public infrastructure. These, he said, are not just programs but “living arteries of empowerment,” connecting citizens with dignity and opportunity.
Minister Scindia called for global efforts to harmonize spectrum bands, rationalize costs, and ensure disaster-resilient green networks. He proposed the development of a Digital Consumer Charter as a global benchmark to ensure fairness, transparency, and trust in the digital domain.
India believes that Artificial Intelligence must be developed through a balanced regulatory approach one that supports innovation while ensuring safety, ethics, and inclusion. The goal is to establish a regulatory framework that is open, flexible, and oriented towards the public good. As the Hon’ble Minister emphasized, India does not seek to impose restrictive rules that hinder innovation, but equally, it cannot ignore the potential risks of AI misuse. To this end, India launched the IndiaAI Mission in 2024 with a budget of ₹10,371.92 crore (USD 1.2 billion).
Reflecting on the evolving regulatory landscape, the Minister said that regulation is no longer about issuing licenses or enforcing penalties—it is about laying down vision, building trust, and shaping future-ready societies. Minister Scindia summed up his vision with the remarked, “If we succeed, we will not merely connect people—we will empower them. We will not just build networks—we will build nations.”
India’s participation at GSR 2025 highlighted the country’s emergence not only as the world’s largest digital society, but as a thought leader in regulatory innovation—committed to shaping a digital future that is secure, inclusive, and globally harmonized.
(TWEET LINK: https://x.com/JM_Scindia/status/1962481015399833845)
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