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Year in Review: India’s tech sector saw major policy shifts, deep-tech push in 2025
The year 2025 marked an ambitious journey towards technology-driven economic growth with policy initiatives tapping sunrise sectors and building capabilities across research, artificial intelligence (AI), data, and cybersecurity.
Here's all that happened in the tech world:
Budget signalled pivot to research and innovation
The government operationalised the research, development, and innovation (RDI) scheme with an initial Rs 20,000 crore allocation to the Department of Science and Technology. The RDI Fund, formally launched in November, is designed to bridge the gap in private sector R&D spending in India.
The government also expanded the PM Research Fellowship, adding 10,000 fellowships for advanced technology research in IITs and IISc over the next five years. A separate Rs 100-crore allocation for the National Geospatial Mission aims to strengthen foundational mapping infrastructure, benefiting space-tech and UAV startups.
The space budget received a modest increase, rising to Rs 13,416 crore, reinforcing the government's long-term space technology ambitions. As part of the allocation, the space department received a capital allocation of Rs 6,103.63 crore and a revenue allocation of Rs 7,312.57 crore.
Semiconductor mission gains momentum
India's semiconductor plans made headway in August, when the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) cleared 10 chip and display units for subsidies under the Rs 76,000 crore Semicon India Programme. Approvals included projects from Kaynes Semicon, HCL-Foxconn, SiCSem, CDIL, Crystal Matrix's MicroLED fab with Lumens Co, and Tarq Semiconductors, among others.
Also Read: Government set to clear next set of chip proposals under Semicon Mission
With funds under the first phase nearly exhausted, ISM 2.0 is expected to expand incentives to areas such as compound semiconductors, advanced packaging, display fabs, capital equipment, and fabless design. Industry bodies have urged the government to double the outlay to $20 billion to attract large-scale investments. India's semiconductor market is projected to reach $100–110 billion by 2030.
Also Read: Chips fall in place for India: Ten approved semicon units across nation, projects underway
Supercomputing mission enters new phase
The National Supercomputing Mission (NSM) continued its rollout of indigenous systems, deploying 37 supercomputers totalling 39 petaflops across research institutions. Ten additional installations, powered by India's homegrown Rudra servers, are scheduled for completion by March 2026, per NSM mission director Hemant Darbari.
NSM 1.0 targets 90 petaflops of capacity by 2026. Under NSM 2.0, the roadmap for India's first exascale system—featuring indigenous CPUs, GPUs, and AI accelerators—has been drafted, marking a push to build advanced compute capabilities domestically, according to India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) chief executive Amitesh Kumar Sinha.
Also Read:Electronics and chip firms take a liking to new states entering fray
Data protection
The government notified the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Rules, 2025, on November 14 after laying out the draft rules in January. The law established the all-powerful Data Protection Board of India (DPBI), armed with powers to impose penalties ranging from Rs 10,000 to a hefty Rs 250 crore.
The rules gave users the right to seek data deletion and required companies to erase personal data after a year, with prior notice. Additionally, organisations must report data breaches to the Board within 72 hours and notify users at the earliest.
Moreover, processing children's data now requires verifiable parental consent, and targeted ads for those under 18 have been banned.
Also Read: Editors Guild highlights gaps in DPDP Rules, seeks clarity for media safeguards
Experts ET spoke with said the law will push companies toward more rigorous governance of AI systems and increase investments in privacy automation—estimated at Rs 10,000 crore over three years.
Meanwhile, a report by consulting firm EY India noted that the new data protection law is expected to attract investments of about Rs 10,000 crore over the next three years as businesses allocate more resources toward privacy automation and services to comply with the norms.
Also Read: From age checks to ad limits: Experts outline impact of DPDP Rules on gaming
AI-enabled deepfakes
The IT ministry's draft amendments to the IT Rules, released in October, sought to curb AI-generated deepfakes through mandatory labelling. The proposals require visual deepfakes to carry markers on at least 10% of the display area and audio content to include disclaimers for the first 10% of the duration.
Industry bodies, including the Data Security Council of India (DSCI), Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), and Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), flagged the guidelines as overly expansive and challenging to implement, arguing they would impose heavy compliance burdens without guaranteeing meaningful mitigation.
ITI represents global giants like Google, Microsoft, Meta, and OpenAI, and IAMAI has members like Google, Meta, and Microsoft. The rules are currently undergoing further consultations.
Cybersecurity sees heightened scrutiny
Cybersecurity has been a major focus this year in line with digital threats becoming rampant. The Ministry of Communications' directive requiring smartphone makers to preinstall the government's Sanchar Saathi app sparked strong reactions from industry and privacy groups, prompting the government to roll back the order.
Cryptocurrency exchanges and virtual digital asset intermediaries were asked to undergo mandatory cybersecurity audits. For this, they would have to hire a security auditor empanelled with the MeitY-controlled Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In). This is now a mandatory requirement for the registration of virtual digital asset (VDA) service providers with the country's anti-money laundering agency, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).
The same month, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) introduced Cybersecurity and Cyber Resilience Framework (CSCRF), which are graded compliance norms, to ease the burden on smaller intermediaries. Experts, however, cautioned that challenges remain, particularly for smaller and mid-sized firms.
The Union Ministry of Home Affairs strengthened national cybercrime coordination by operationalising the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C). Meanwhile, industry continued to grapple with a severe talent shortage, with a 30-50% skill gap for specialised cybersecurity roles, per a report by ET.
Source: EconomicTimes
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