Network Readiness Index 2025: India’s Rise in AI Meets a Privacy Governance Deficit
SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure | SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth | SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities | SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals
Ministry of Communications | Department of Telecommunications (DoT) | Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)
The Network Readiness Index (NRI) 2025 ranks India 45th globally (score: 54.43), marking it as a leading digital performer among lower-middle-income economies. India tops global rankings in telecommunication investment, AI scientific publications, and ICT services exports, reflecting world-class strength in digital access and economic capability. However, the index highlights a sharply asymmetric digital landscape, with persistent gaps in governance and inclusion, including a 101st rank in privacy protection by law. India’s current standing remains fragile, with rankings sensitive to modeling assumptions, underscoring the need for stronger institutional foundations.
Strategic Pillars of India’s Network Readiness The 2025 NRI framework evaluates India’s performance across four critical pillars, revealing a landscape of high-performance peaks and regulatory valleys:
Infrastructure and Investment Leadership: India leads the world in annual investment in telecommunication services and ranks 2nd globally in international internet bandwidth. This aggressive infrastructure push has secured the 5th rank in FTTH/Building Internet subscriptions and the 2nd rank for mobile broadband traffic within the country.
Knowledge and AI Output: The nation has emerged as a global research hub, securing the 1st rank in AI scientific publications. This intellectual capital, combined with a 1st rank in ICT services exports and 3rd rank in domestic market scale, forms the core of India’s technology-led economic growth.
The Governance and Trust Gap: Despite technical strengths, India’s Governance pillar ranks significantly lower at 73rd. Specific weaknesses include Privacy Protection by Law (101st) and Regulatory Quality (78th), indicating that the legal and trust-based frameworks are not yet keeping pace with technical deployments.
Social and Inclusive Impact Hurdles: While India ranks 14th in Economy impact, its scores for Quality of Life (77th) and SDG Contribution (83rd) remain lagging. Furthermore, a 96th rank in Technology-Enabled Work Flexibility suggests that the benefits of digital tools are not yet fully integrated into modern labor practices.
Regional and Income-Group Benchmarking: India is the 2nd highest-ranked lower-middle-income economy in Asia-Pacific, following Vietnam. However, its Inclusion rank of 80th highlights that digital dividends are not being distributed equitably across its diverse population.
What is the “Network Readiness Index” (NRI) and how does it assess India? The NRI is a global tool that evaluates 127 countries across 53 indicators to measure how effectively they use technology for social and economic development. It moves beyond just “speed” and “access” to look at People (skills and usage), Governance (trust and regulation), and Impact (SDG goals). For India, the index shows a unique “asymmetric” development: the country excels in high-end Technology and Economy indicators but faces critical challenges in the Governance and Inclusion sub-pillars, where it ranks in the bottom half of the global list.
Policy Relevance
India’s 2025 performance marks a transition from building digital infrastructure to the urgent need for robust digital governance. While India leads in telecom investment (1st), its low rank in privacy protection (101st) creates a “trust deficit” that could undermine the long-term adoption of AI and other future technologies.
Bridging the Regulatory Gap: Improving Regulatory Quality (78th) is essential for the DoT and MeitY to create a predictable environment for the next $500 billion in digital investments.
Scaling Social Impact: Low scores in SDG Contribution (83rd) and Quality of Life (77th) suggest that Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) must be more explicitly linked to health, education, and climate outcomes.
Modernizing Labor Governance: Addressing the 96th rank in Work Flexibility requires the Ministry of Labour to align the new Labour Codes with technology-enabled, hybrid work models to boost productivity.
Strengthening Trust-Based AI: Leveraging India’s 1st rank in AI publications to build “Sovereign AI” requires a parallel improvement in the Trust sub-pillar (78th) to ensure ethical and secure data usage.
Follow the full report here: Network Readiness Index 2025