New Delhi, May 20: The Bharath Digital Infrastructure Association (BDIA) today convened policymakers, industry leaders, technology experts, and ecosystem stakeholders at B-DIA Bharat Digital Samvad: The Foundation Forum, a national policy forum focused on India’s sovereign digital infrastructure ambitions and the future of trusted digital ecosystems.
Dr. Ashwani Mahajan (National Co-Convenor, Swadeshi Jagran Manch), NN Sinha, (Retd IAS, Former Secretary Steel and Rural Development, CEO RODIC AI), Sh. Ateesh Kumar Singh (Additional Secretary DPIIT), R. Chandrashekhar (Former Secretary, MeitY & Former President, NASSCOM), Shri. Amit A. Shukla (IFS, Joint Secretary Cyber Diplomacy), Dr. Pavan Duggal (Sr. Advocate, Supreme Court, Ms. Padmaja Ruparel (Co-Founder, IAN Group), Sh. Ashok Chandak(President-SEMI India and IESA), Sh. Sanjeev Gupta (CEO KDEM) Ms. Juhi Bhatnagar(Founding member and Key Advisor, IAIRO), Mr. Puneet Aggarwal(CEO, VVDN Technologies and Founding Member, BDIA) Mr. Rahul Takkallapally(Founder, Bharath Cloud and Founding Member-BDIA), Shri Srinivas Varadarajan (Founder VigyanLabs and Founding Member-BDIA ) Dr. Jaijit Bhattacharya(President, C-DEP), Dr. Shobhit Mathur(Co-Founder & VC, Rishihood University), Dr. Sandeep K Shukla(Director, IIIT Hyderabad)and other leading voices from India’s cloud, semiconductor, cybersecurity, AI, DPI, and digital infrastructure ecosystem.
Held under the theme “From Adoption to Command: Architecting India’s Sovereign Digital Future”, the forum underscored India’s journey from being a large-scale digital user to shaping and securing the foundational layers of digital infrastructure stack, including cloud, compute, hardware, platforms and critical data systems, that powers national progress. The summit also marked the formal public launch of BDIA as India’s dedicated not-for-profit industry body focused on advancing sovereign digital infrastructure and enabling stronger collaboration between industry, policymakers, academia, and strategic institutions.
The forum featured three deep-dive policy discussions: Securing India’s Data Bhumi: Foundational Infrastructure & Sovereign Compute; Sovereign Vidhan: Commanding India’s Digital Ownership; and Udyog Setu: Building the Digital Industrial Landscape, which focused on strengthening India’s sovereign compute and hardware capabilities, reducing dependence on foreign-controlled digital ecosystems, enabling trusted cloud and digital governance frameworks, and creating stronger procurement and market access pathways for Indian technology companies.
As part of the summit outcomes, BDIA announced plans to submit a comprehensive policy recommendation framework to relevant government stakeholders, focused on accelerating India’s sovereign digital infrastructure ecosystem through trusted cloud standards, domestic digital product certification, sovereign AI frameworks, and stronger market access pathways for Indian technology providers.
Speaking at the event, Piyush Somani, President, BDIA and Promoter, Chairman & Managing Director, ESDS Software Solution Ltd., said: “India stands at a defining moment in its digital journey. While the country has emerged as a global leader in digital adoption, the next phase of growth must focus on building sovereign and trusted digital infrastructure that is designed, governed, and scaled from within India. As technologies such as AI, cloud, and cybersecurity become foundational to economic growth and national resilience, it is critical for India to strengthen its domestic capabilities and reduce strategic dependencies across key digital infrastructure layers.”Abhishek Bhatt, Secretary General, BDIA, added: “This conclave reflects the growing urgency across industry and policy circles to create a stronger framework for India’s digital sovereignty ambitions. The discussions highlighted the need for collaborative policymaking, ecosystem investments, procurement reforms, and innovation-led partnerships to ensure India not only consumes digital technologies at scale, but also builds and owns the infrastructure powering its digital future.”
The discussions also highlighted the need for policy-backed support to accelerate India’s domestic AI, cloud, semiconductor, cybersecurity, and digital infrastructure ecosystem through sovereign cloud certification standards, sovereign workload classification frameworks, indigenous digital product standards, and long-term digital governance models. Industry leaders emphasised the importance of advancing domestic innovation, indigenous IP creation, and nationally aligned frameworks such as Bharat Cloud Certification (BCC), Trusted Indian Digital Product (TIDP), and Digital Sovereignty Maturity Models (DSMM) to strengthen India’s path towards technological self-reliance and digital sovereignty.
The forum concluded with industry leaders backing the need for a nationally aligned sovereign digital infrastructure framework to reduce strategic dependence on foreign-controlled digital ecosystems and support India’s emergence as a globally competitive digital economy.