New strategies aim to reshape global tech growth and future manufacturing

Industrial policy is once again becoming a major force around the world, but the industries of today look very different from the factories of the past. Modern production happens silently inside data centres, automated warehouses, robotics labs, and high-performance computing clusters. Assembly lines have turned into lines of code. The debate is no longer about whether automation will arrive. It is about whether countries can prepare their people, their education systems, and their industries fast enough to stay relevant in this new era.

India, with its huge youth population, cannot afford to ignore this shift. The country has been a big consumer of digital services and a trusted destination for global back-office work. But despite participating in almost every major global technology wave, India owns very few of the systems that power them. We build the rails of technology, but other nations run the trains. As countries fight for digital dominance—through tariffs, sanctions, export controls, and aggressive industrial strategies—India must ask itself: do we have an industrial policy that matches the demands of the digital age?

Building sovereign digital foundations

Around the world, governments are rewriting industrial policy with a strong digital focus. The United States is bringing back semiconductor manufacturing with huge public investment and restrictive export controls. Europe is shaping its vision of “digital sovereignty” by trying to control data, platforms, and critical digital infrastructure. China’s Made in China 2025 plan has already created powerful companies in AI, telecom, and advanced manufacturing.

India’s efforts, however, remain scattered. It has built impressive digital public infrastructure such as Aadhaar, UPI, and DigiLocker. These platforms show India’s ability to innovate at scale. But the deeper architecture behind this progress is not fully secure. Many Indian start-ups depend on foreign investment. Most servers that power Indian apps run on global cloud platforms. The chips inside our devices are imported. And the global companies that manage our data operate beyond Indian jurisdiction.

This makes India’s digital sovereignty vulnerable. A foreign policy change, a remote shutdown, or a technology sanction can disrupt entire sectors of the Indian economy. To remain secure and competitive, India must treat digital infrastructure as a strategic asset—just like defence, energy, or food security. This requires heavy investment in research, chip manufacturing, talent development, and high-quality education. To lead the digital century, India must create both the technology and the skilled professionals who will shape it.

Industrial policy, therefore, must evolve beyond subsidies and sector-based incentives. It must become a systems-oriented framework that connects manufacturing with data, technology with governance, and research with economic design. India needs an integrated strategy that builds strength across the entire digital value chain—from hardware to software, from platforms to protocols, from innovation to ownership.

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Designing a resilient digital ecosystem for the future

A digital industrial policy is not just about supporting innovation—it is about protecting the nation from new types of risk. The pandemic showed how supply chains can disappear overnight. The next big disruption will likely be digital. A cyberattack, a cloud outage, or an export restriction on chips can freeze critical industries. Industrial strategy must therefore focus on resilience: building redundancy, developing native capability, and maintaining strategic reserves of key technologies.

Another challenge India must confront is what many experts call “data colonialism.” Every day, Indian citizens generate billions of data points—through payments, photos, messages, shopping, and travel. This data is processed by global companies and used to train their algorithms. These algorithms then become the intellectual property of foreign firms, giving them enormous economic power. India provides the raw material, but imports the intelligence built on top of it. A modern industrial policy must correct this imbalance by developing strong local data infrastructure and ensuring fair value for data generated within the country.

To truly own the digital century, India must build ecosystems that can grow independently. Cities should have the capacity to raise capital and attract talent. Universities should be able to nurture researchers and keep them in India. Public institutions must be strong enough to handle digital shocks. In this framework, data becomes a public utility, artificial intelligence becomes a national asset, and digital ethics becomes a new form of regulation—much like environmental rules shaped the industrial age.

But achieving this will also require a cultural shift in governance. India’s administrative structure is designed more for supervision than for innovation. Industrial policy must create incentives for officials who build ecosystems, not just enforce rules. Government systems need to function like digital platforms—fast, flexible, and interconnected.

India’s industrial policy cannot remain a list of incentives or scattered production schemes. It must mature into a national doctrine—a clear and coordinated plan that links the country’s resources with its long-term ambitions. The Green Revolution and the White Revolution succeeded not because of subsidies but because they created strong institutions, clear goals, and a shared sense of urgency. India now needs a similar transformation for the digital era.

A modern industrial doctrine must bring together education reform, research excellence, fiscal independence, technology standards, and global trade strategy. Only with such coherence can India shift from being a participant in global technology waves to becoming a leader—and secure its sovereignty in the digital century.