Key Points

The minister was responding to Bharti Airtel Managing Director Gopal Vittal's demand for a new framework of trust, regulatory balance and security in the digital era.

Speaking at a session at the Indian Mobile Congress 2025 here, Vittal warned that while India has solved the problem of connectivity, the next challenge lies in safeguarding users and strengthening institutional collaboration.

According to the top Airtel official, connectivity is now considered a fundamental right, and its removal would have disastrous effects on everything from banking and aviation to payments. However, he added, the true concerns are about inclusion, security, and trust rather than connectivity.

He expressed concern that instances of financial fraud and cybercrime were undermining public confidence, stating that over a trillion dollars are lost annually to digital fraud worldwide and that trust is still a major problem.

Although the company has blocked 48 billion spam messages and 3.5 lakh fraudulent links since starting its spam detection initiative, Vittal stated that this can not be done alone, and advocated for the creation of new international organisations, like a "fraud bureau," to fight scams and online dangers together.

The minister responded to Vittel's concerns by stating that all cutting-edge technologies, including semiconductors, quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and 6G, are being developed in mission mode with specific goals and allocated funds.

"Since a lot of what occurs in AI is invisible, we are concentrating on responsible AI, which means making sure algorithms are transparent," he added.

Although India has a "decent regulatory structure", Chandra Sekhar admitted that quick adaptation is necessary due to the speed at which technology is changing.

He stated that the government is looking into ways to use anonymised data sets to support AI research responsibly and that they must simultaneously foster innovation and regulate.

"Even for governments, technology is developing more quickly than anyone can foresee, and algorithms are invisible, so you can't always see what's going on behind them," the minister highlighted, adding that they "therefore require audits, public input, and flexible regulation".

- IANS