Union Power Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Wednesday, 1 July 2026 marked the 11th anniversary of the Digital India programme, crediting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership for transforming digital access across the country and empowering citizens at the margins of society.

Posting in Hindi on X, Khattar wrote: 'Digital India aaj viksit aur aatmanirbhar Bharat ki mazboot aadharshila bankar ubhra hai' — 'Digital India has today emerged as a strong cornerstone of a developed and self-reliant India.' He added that over the past 11 years, the initiative has delivered opportunities, services and conveniences to the poor, the marginalised and citizens in the last row, empowering them in the process.

Context

The Digital India programme was formally launched on 1 July 2015 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the stated goal of transforming India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. The anniversary on 1 July 2026 marks 11 years of the initiative, which has since grown into one of the central government's most prominent flagship schemes. Khattar's post is among a wave of tributes from senior BJP leaders marking the occasion.

In his post, Khattar specifically highlighted two pillars of the programme's progress: the widespread expansion of the optical fibre network across the country, and India's world-class achievements in digital payments. He noted that the campaign has lent fresh momentum to good governance while making everyday life simpler and more transparent for ordinary citizens.

Policy Backdrop

BharatNet, the rural optical fibre network project, has been a critical vehicle for Digital India's infrastructure goals, aimed at connecting gram panchayats across the country with broadband connectivity. The programme has also anchored the rapid rise of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which has made India a globally cited example of real-time retail digital payments at scale.

Beyond payments and connectivity, Digital India has served as the scaffolding for a broader ecosystem of Aadhaar-linked services, direct benefit transfers and e-governance platforms. These have collectively been positioned by the central government as instruments for reducing leakages in welfare delivery and improving transparency in public administration.

Stakeholders and Impact

The programme's stated beneficiaries are rural citizens, low-income households and populations previously excluded from formal financial and governance systems. Khattar's post underscores the government's framing that digital infrastructure is not merely a technological upgrade but a social equity intervention — one that reaches, in his words, 'the citizen in the last row.'

India's digital payments ecosystem has drawn international attention, with multilateral institutions and foreign governments studying the UPI model for potential replication. Khattar noted that Digital India has 'made the world acknowledge India's digital capability at a global level,' reflecting the government's consistent effort to project the programme as a soft-power asset alongside its domestic utility.

What's Next

The immediate policy focus within the Digital India framework is expected to remain on completing BharatNet Phase-III and deepening last-mile broadband penetration in remote and underserved regions. Integration of emerging technologies — including 5G networks and artificial intelligence — into citizen-facing services is also on the government's stated agenda as the programme enters its second decade.

As Digital India turns 11, the anniversary presents both a moment of stock-taking and a political opportunity for the ruling dispensation to reinforce its governance narrative ahead of the programme's next phase. How effectively the infrastructure built over the past decade translates into measurable improvements in service delivery for the most marginalised citizens will be the defining test of the initiative's next chapter.