Why India Needs Telecom Champions, The Strategic Imperative for Atmanirbhar Bharat
India is one of the world’s largest telecom markets, with nearly a billion internet users, and one of the fastest-growing digital economies. Yet it remains the only major power without a globally dominant telecom equipment manufacturer of its own. This absence is now becoming a strategic vulnerability and an impediment to safeguarding our telecom security and sovereignty.
The Atmanirbhar Bharatiya Network seeks to ensure sovereignty across critical domains—energy, semiconductors, and most importantly, data. But pipelines that move data across our digital devices to servers and back are part of our telecom infrastructure as critical to India’s long-term interests as our data. In 2026, owning the data but not the telecom infrastructure is like owning the gold but renting the armoured truck from a rival who has the keys.
The Decisive Phase
The issue is all the more critical as the global telecom industry is entering a decisive phase. The next-generation networks will utilise technologies like 6G, satellite terrestrial hybrid connectivity, cloud-native core networks, and ultra-high-capacity fibre; and deliberations among global players will determine who sets standards and owns intellectual property.
Naturally then, countries with globally competitive telecom manufacturers will command both technological and strategic influence. Those without them, like India, risk remaining large markets but marginal players.
Europe has Ericsson and Nokia; the US has Cisco and Juniper; China has Huawei and ZTE; and Japan has NEC. Each of these companies grew within supportive domestic ecosystems that provided early market access, regulatory alignment, fiscal support, and sustained investment in research and intellectual property.
India’s absence from such a list portends a structural weakness in our technological ecosystem. It is all the more jarring given that we have had clear success in building an indigenous 4G/5G stack that is globally marketed as a secure and cost-effective alternative to Chinese or European equipment.
The R&D Gap
While India has the foundational capabilities to build such global telecom champions, what holds us back critically is our low and fragmented investment in R&D. India spends roughly 0.7% of GDP on R&D, a long-standing figure that sits far below China’s 2.4%, the US’s 3.5%, and Israel’s 5.4%. No Indian telecom company ranks among the top global patent filers.
Recognising this gap in India’s R&D, the government has launched initiatives like the ₹1-lakh crore Research Development and Innovation Fund and the Anusandhan National Research Foundation. The goal is to strengthen the innovation ecosystem across domains and deepen academic-industry collaboration.
Although these initiatives are important, they remain largely project-centric and input-driven. True innovation, on the other hand, demands more than just funding for research; it needs sustained strategic support for companies capable of converting innovation into globally competitive products.
The Success Formula of Global Champions
A scrutiny of global tech and telecom leaders reveals how each of these firms have grown through long-term alignment between state policy and enterprise capability. While domestic markets provided early scale and testing grounds, favourable regulatory frameworks supported innovation and intellectual property creation. Finally, diplomatic support for their export strategies opened external markets and positioned them for global leadership.
This is not a coincidence. It is the result of deliberate, sustained strategy. Countries that built telecom champions did so by design, not by accident.
A Three-Pillar Strategy
Achieving true telecom sovereignty therefore demands that India must move beyond isolated project funding and towards a more coherent enterprise-centric strategy.
First, identify and nurture potential champions. To begin with, we need a structured framework to identify and support high-performing telecom manufacturing firms that can be nurtured into becoming true global champions. A transparent set of criteria that includes R&D spend, export performance, and global-quality certifications can be established and used to recognise home-grown firms with the potential to scale. Once identified, these enterprises must benefit from stable, long-term policy support linked to performance and innovation outcomes.
Second, create domestic scale through infrastructure development. Equally important is the creation of a new model for the development of digital infrastructure. Deeper fibre deployment, and next-generation network rollouts can provide the scale required for Indian firms to refine products and build competitive capabilities. At the same time, faster certification processes, strong standards enforcement, and fair competitive conditions will ensure distorted pricing or substandard imports don’t undermine domestic innovation.
Third, provide institutional support for global expansion. Finally, institutional support for global expansion should form the third and final pillar of our national strategy. Telecom equipment exports are closely tied to strategic influence, yet India’s share in global telecom exports remains modest. Indian firms entering overseas markets typically confront regulatory complexity, trade defence actions, and shifting procurement norms. This is precisely where diplomatic engagement, export financing, and other risk-mitigation mechanisms can help domestic firms cut through the barriers and compete more effectively.
The National Security Imperative
To anchor telecom manufacturing and future technology investments in India, it must create global champions of Indian origin. High-tech operations such as Operation Sindoor highlight that technological capability and national security are intertwined, underscoring the need for strong domestic industrial capacity.
In an era where supply chains are being weaponised and technology is central to geopolitical competition, relying on foreign suppliers for critical telecom infrastructure is a strategic risk. India cannot afford to be dependent on others for the networks that carry its data, power its economy, and connect its people.
Conclusion: A Critical Pillar of Atmanirbhar Bharat
With a calibrated and consistent strategy, Indian entities can emerge as global telecom champions. As tech supply chains become more regionalised and security considerations increasingly shape market access, countries that nurture such enterprises will hold a long-term advantage.
In this context, building global telecom champions should be considered a critical pillar of India’s Atmanirbhar Vision. It is not just about manufacturing; it is about sovereignty. It is not just about markets; it is about power. It is not just about technology; it is about security.
The foundation exists. India has the talent, the market, and the ambition. What is needed now is a coherent, sustained strategy to turn potential into reality. The time to act is now.
Q&A: Unpacking India’s Telecom Champion Challenge
Q1: Why is India’s lack of a global telecom equipment manufacturer a strategic vulnerability?
India is the world’s largest telecom market without a domestic champion. This means critical infrastructure is supplied by foreign firms, creating dependency and potential security risks. As the author notes, owning data but not the infrastructure that carries it is like owning gold but renting the armoured truck from a rival who has the keys. Telecom sovereignty is essential for national security.
Q2: What is India’s R&D spending compared to other countries?
India spends roughly 0.7% of GDP on R&D, far below China’s 2.4%, the US’s 3.5%, and Israel’s 5.4%. No Indian telecom company ranks among top global patent filers. While government initiatives like the ₹1-lakh crore Research Development and Innovation Fund are welcome, they remain project-centric rather than providing sustained strategic support for companies.
Q3: How did other countries build their telecom champions?
Each global champion grew through long-term alignment between state policy and enterprise capability. Domestic markets provided early scale and testing grounds. Favourable regulatory frameworks supported innovation and IP creation. Diplomatic support for export strategies opened external markets. This combination of factors—not isolated project funding—created sustainable competitive advantage.
Q4: What three-pillar strategy does the article propose?
First, identify and nurture potential champions through transparent criteria (R&D spend, export performance, certifications) with stable, long-term policy support. Second, create domestic scale through infrastructure development (fibre deployment, next-generation networks) with faster certification and fair competition. Third, provide institutional support for global expansion through diplomatic engagement, export financing, and risk mitigation.
Q5: Why is this particularly urgent now?
The global telecom industry is entering a decisive phase with next-generation technologies (6G, satellite-terrestrial hybrid connectivity, cloud-native core networks). Deliberations among global players will determine who sets standards and owns IP. Countries with competitive manufacturers will command technological and strategic influence. Those without, like India, risk remaining large markets but marginal players. The time to act is now.
