Why AI-Driven Security Must Become India’s Core Digital Infrastructure?

Viksit Bharat 2047: Why AI-driven security must become India’s core digital infrastructure?

Budget 2025-26: The India-AI Impact Summit 2026, set to be held at Bharat Mandapam in February, is expected to move the conversation from AI policy to real-world use in areas like healthcare, mobility, and governance.

Budget 2025-26: India's Viksit Bharat 2047 dream tells a long story about where the country wants to be by the time it completes 100 years of Independence. The goal is clear: to become a $30 trillion economy built on strong infrastructure, smart governance, and technology-led growth. At the heart of this journey lies Digital Public Infrastructure, which is expected to drive inclusion and economic strength. Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has also underlined this ambition, calling it achievable by 2047.

The Union Budget 2025-26 plays a key role in turning this vision into reality. India has the talent to build world-class AI and advanced technologies, but many startups still rely on global Big Tech platforms. Stronger policy and budget support can help them move faster.

Initiatives like the Rs 6,000-crore National Quantum Mission mark an important step, yet protecting India's digital systems for the post-quantum future is equally important. This year's Budget focus on sectors like infrastructure, manufacturing, defence, renewable energy, and AI could shape the next chapter of India's growth story.

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India today runs some of the world's largest interconnected systems, serving over 1.48 billion people. Physical infrastructure, from metro stations and airports to hospitals and government buildings, is increasingly linked with digital platforms, cloud systems, and AI-driven analytics.

This convergence has improved efficiency and scale, but it has also widened the attack surface. Retrofitting security after deployment not only raises costs but also leaves public systems vulnerable to operational disruptions. Recent cyber incidents across sectors such as healthcare, insurance, infrastructure, and government have reinforced a clear lesson: scale without built-in security creates fragility.

This shift in thinking is also being echoed by industry leaders working at the intersection of automation, security, and smart infrastructure. Aditya Prabhu, Co-Founder and CEO of Secutech Automations, said, “When a USD 12.5 billion smart building market is projected to grow almost nine-fold this decade, automation stops being a ‘nice-to-have' project and becomes a boardroom KPI. As we prepare for the upcoming National Budget priorities for the year, and await the government's longer-term Viksit Bharat 2047 vision, our expectation is simple: continued support for smart, energy-efficient projects and clear guidelines that make it easier to adopt unified ELV and automation from the design stage itself.”

The missing link in India's infrastructure story appears to be an integrated, AI-driven security architecture that securely connects physical spaces such as buildings, transport hubs, industrial zones, and public areas with digital systems in a cyber-resilient and interoperable manner.

If Digital Public Infrastructure is the backbone of Viksit Bharat, then security automation must operate as a foundational utility, much like power, connectivity, or data access. It cannot remain a peripheral IT function added as an afterthought.

The role of technology in shaping public engagement and national narratives is also evolving, especially as digital systems move from the backend to the centre of citizen experience. Highlighting this shift, Saurav Bhaik, CEO & Founder of Tagbin, said, **"Over the last few years, technology has moved from working behind the scenes to shaping how people experience ideas, institutions, and brands. That shift needs to be reflected more clearly in how the ecosystem is supported. Creative technology today brings together storytelling, design, and deep tech, and it calls for a different investment mindset.

This budget is an opportunity to strengthen innovation infrastructure for immersive media, AI-led experiences, spatial computing, and digital storytelling. These technologies are already being used at scale in public spaces, museums, and exhibitions. Supporting talent, R&D, and original Indian IP can help position India as a global leader in experience-led innovation, aligned with the Viksit Bharat vision."

This shift is already becoming visible in the way smart cities and large public projects are being assessed. Governments and asset owners are moving away from isolated CCTV, access control, and fire systems toward unified command centres. These platforms can manage millions of connected devices, enable predictive maintenance, and ensure long-term compliance with safety and sustainability standards.

India's Smart Cities Mission now covers more than 100 cities, backed by over 84,000 surveillance cameras and an expanding network of sensors. This has helped improve urban management, but security systems are still spread across different agencies, creating gaps and blind spots.

Building security features such as automated identity checks, access control, and real-time threat monitoring into these systems from the start can lower costs in the long run. It also helps keep essential city services running smoothly, which is especially important in cities where even small disruptions can cause economic and social problems.
Budget 2026, AI, and the Technology Stack Behind Viksit Bharat

The upcoming Union Budget 2026 is widely expected to act as a bridge between short-term capital expenditure and the long-term Viksit Bharat 2047 vision. With continued emphasis on digital infrastructure, AI, and manufacturing, industry voices are urging policymakers to treat security automation as a national capex priority rather than a routine IT expense.

This thinking also matches other national efforts shaping India's technology future. The India-AI Impact Summit 2026, set to be held at Bharat Mandapam in February, is expected to move the conversation from AI policy to real-world use in areas like healthcare, mobility, and governance. Its focus on safe and trusted AI highlights the risks that arise when automated systems grow without proper security and accountability.

As Budget 2025-26 discussions increasingly shift toward outcome-driven spending and long-term resilience, the role of digital frameworks in public and enterprise infrastructure is coming into sharper focus. Underlining this transition, Mr. Piyush Goel, Founder & CEO of Beyond Key, said, ”As the Budget 2025-26 for India's Viksit Bharat infrastructure vision takes shape, technology will be the ‘missing link' that binds growth and resilience together. Today, the budgeting process is more about a digital framework than a means of innovating. Budgeting cycles are based on the results they can provide and guide organizations through compliance, scalability, and competitiveness. CIOs, therefore, face challenges to provide the ability to increase their budgets up to an additional 15-18% in order to enhance their resilience. This has driven the need for partners who can combine deep technology knowledge with strategic advice, so that digital infrastructure can deliver tangible and sustainable outcomes.”

In the same way, the Bharat 6G Vision sees next-generation networks as the backbone of India's future infrastructure. With 6G expected to connect trillions of devices at very high speeds, built-in, AI-driven security becomes essential. In such highly connected systems, human monitoring alone will not be enough.

The expansion of Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) adds another important layer. By spreading innovation to Tier-II and Tier-III cities, setting up sovereign data centres, and supporting AI and cybersecurity startups, STPI is helping build security and resilience into the country's digital and industrial ecosystem.

When all these pieces come together, AI, semiconductors, 6G, and STPI form the core hardware, intelligence, and connectivity stack. Security automation becomes the glue that allows this system to operate safely and at scale.

As India builds infrastructure for a $30 trillion economy, the focus must move beyond creating assets to keeping them reliable, secure, and trusted over the long term. Automated security systems help predict problems early, protect digital sovereignty, and secure the platforms that people use every day. When digital systems are built at a population scale, resilience, redundancy, and automation are not optional safety measures. They are the infrastructure itself.

Source: ZeeNews
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