Shailender Kumar Pandey
New Delhi, 20 May
The Bharath Digital Infrastructure Association (BDIA) convened policymakers, industry leaders, technology experts, and ecosystem stakeholders at the B-DIA Bharat Digital Samvad: The Foundation Forum in New Delhi on Wednesday, to deliberate on India’s sovereign digital infrastructure ambitions and the future of trusted digital ecosystems. Held under the theme “From Adoption to Command: Architecting India’s Sovereign Digital Future”, the summit underscored India’s transition from a large-scale digital adopter to a nation that shapes and secures foundational digital infrastructure layers, including cloud, compute, hardware, platforms, and critical data systems. The event marked the formal public launch of BDIA as a dedicated not-for-profit industry body advancing sovereign digital infrastructure and fostering collaboration among industry, policymakers, academia, and strategic institutions. Distinguished participants included Dr. Ashwani Mahajan, NN Sinha, Ateesh Kumar Singh, R. Chandrashekhar, Amit A. Shukla, Dr. Pavan Duggal, Ms. Padmaja Ruparel, Ashok Chandak, Sanjeev Gupta, Juhi Bhatnagar, Puneet Aggarwal, Rahul Takkallapally, Srinivas Varadarajan, Dr Jaijit Bhattacharya, Dr Shobhit Mathur, Dr Sandeep K. Shukla, and other leading voices from India’s cloud, semiconductor, cybersecurity, AI, DPI, and digital infrastructure ecosystem. The forum featured three deep-dive policy discussions—Securing India’s Data Bhumi, Sovereign Vidhan, and Udyog Setu—which addressed strengthening sovereign compute and hardware capabilities, reducing reliance on foreign-controlled ecosystems, enabling trusted cloud governance, and expanding procurement pathways for Indian technology providers. As a key outcome, BDIA announced plans to submit a comprehensive policy recommendation framework to government stakeholders, focusing on trusted cloud standards, domestic product certification, sovereign AI frameworks, and enhanced market access for Indian innovators. Speaking at the event, BDIA President Piyush Somani emphasized India’s defining moment in its digital journey, highlighting the need to build sovereign and trusted infrastructure to reduce strategic dependencies, while Secretary General Abhishek Bhatt stressed the urgency of collaborative policymaking and innovation-led partnerships. Industry leaders further advocated for nationally aligned frameworks such as Bharat Cloud Certification (BCC), Trusted Indian Digital Product (TIDP), and Digital Sovereignty Maturity Models (DSMM) to accelerate domestic innovation, indigenous IP creation, and technological self-reliance. The forum concluded with a collective call for a sovereign digital infrastructure framework to strengthen India’s competitiveness and resilience in the global digital economy.
