Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the inauguration of the 10th edition of the India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2026, themed ‘Scale Without Boundaries’, in New Delhi. Photo credit: @narendramodi/YT via PTI
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday (October 8, 2026) called for a global framework to tackle cyber frauds and deepfakes, saying digital threats have crossed national boundaries and require coordinated action by all stakeholders.
Inaugurating the tenth edition of the India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2026, Mr. Modi said governments, technology companies, telecom operators and financial institutions should create mechanisms to curb digital frauds.
“I urge the GSMA and telecom operators across the world: come, let us create a global mechanism that can stop such fraud before it reaches the people. India has learnt a lot from its experiences in this direction, and India is always ready to share its experiences with the world,” Mr. Modi said.
Technology can achieve scale only when it gains people’s trust, he said.
A person sitting in one country, with the help of a person in another country, can commit a crime in a third country, Mr. Modi said, adding that deepfakes have become a big challenge.
Targetting 1 bn 5G users by 2030, says Scindia
India aims to double its 5G user base from 550 million to one billion by 2030, Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Thursday (October 8, 2026), adding that the country, which was behind the world in 4G, is resolved to lead the world in 6G.
On 6G, Mr. Scindia said the Bharat 6G Alliance, which has 90 institutions involved with it, has established 7,700 patents, of which 4,400 are international.
“We were behind the world in 4G. We marched with the world on 5G. But it is our resolve that we will lead the world on 6G,” he said.
The minister said the ITU (International Telecommunication Union) Council has accepted India’s proposal to host the Plenipotentiary Conference in 2030.
He noted that the ITU’s World Telecommunication Standardisation Assembly (WTSA) was held in India for the first time in 2024 and described it as the largest WTSA held outside Geneva in the history of the ITU.
Tracing India’s telecom journey since the first IMC in September 2017, Mr. Scindia said the number of broadband customers has grown from 60 million to over 1.1 billion. The country now has 1.35 billion mobile customers.
The cost of 1 GB of data has fallen from ₹268 in 2014 to ₹8 now, which he described as the cheapest in the world, he said.
Speaking about digital public infrastructure, he said UPI accounts for 84% of digital transactions in India, and 49% of the world’s digital transactions take place in India.
UPI processes 260 billion transactions a year worth $3.4 trillion, and the technology has been taken to 11 other countries, he said.
The minister said the $15 billion government-funded BharatNet programme will provide middle-mile connectivity to close to 2.6 lakh gram panchayats.
It will also give on-demand connectivity to the remaining 3.8 lakh villages, with a 100 Mbps connection to every home as demanded by citizens.
On manufacturing, he said the mobile phone industry was worth about USD 2-3 billion in 2014 and is now a USD 63 billion industry.
India is now the world’s second-largest mobile phone producer, and exports are close to $29 billion
Published – October 08, 2026 12:16 pm IST
