India’s technology story is entering a more ambitious phase. For years, the national conversation has rightly focused on scale: more devices, more users, more digital services, and wider connectivity. Today, the opportunity is bigger. India is no longer only a vast consumer of technology. It is steadily becoming a place where the next generation of secure, connected products can be designed, built, and trusted.
India’s digital transformation is entering a more decisive stage. The story is no longer only about scale, although India’s scale remains extraordinary. It is now about how that scale is converted into long-term strategic advantage. Today, India is steadily becoming a place where the next generation of secure, connected products can be designed, built, and trusted.
From my perspective, after more than two decades of leadership across semiconductors, telecoms, and security, one thing is clear: countries that lead in connected technology do not succeed by focusing only on end-user adoption. They succeed by building the trusted technical foundations that allow innovation to scale with confidence. That is where India has a significant opportunity.
Programs such as Make in India and Digital India have helped create a strong momentum for manufacturing, innovation, and digital access. The next phase is to deepen India’s position in higher-value layers of the technology stack: not only assembling devices, but enabling them to be securely connected, remotely managed, and built for global markets from day one.
This is where trusted connectivity, including eSIM technology, becomes important. Most consumers understand the value of convenience. They want to set up a device quickly, switch networks easily, and avoid the friction of handling a physical SIM card. eSIMs help make that possible. They remove a small but familiar point of inconvenience from everyday life, and in doing so they reflect a broader shift in what people now expect from technology: simplicity, flexibility, and a service experience that fits around them.
That same idea now matters far beyond the smartphone. In connected industrial goods, from smart meters and vehicles to healthcare devices and logistics equipment, flexibility translates into something even more valuable: longer service life. That means a product can be deployed faster, adapted to changing network conditions, and supported over a much longer operating life without the cost and complexity of physical SIM replacement. Done right, it makes it easier to onboard and manage connected assets in AIoT platforms at scale. For manufacturers, that improves efficiency. For operators, it improves service agility. For national infrastructure, it supports resilience and scalability.
For India, this creates a clear strategic advantage. This matters for India because connected electronics will play an increasingly central role in the economic modernization that’s ahead. Building more of this capability locally supports the country’s wider ambition to strengthen its electronics ecosystem, it allows products to be designed with greater export readiness, easier global deployment, and stronger alignment to the needs of international customers.
At Kigen, we see India as a market of immense long-term significance, but also as a place where the next chapter of connected technology can be built with greater ambition. The future will belong to edge intelligence products that are secure, adaptable, and designed for long service life. eSIM is a critical part of that trusted foundation.
India has the talent, the industrial momentum, and the policy ambition to turn this into a genuine global advantage. The real opportunity now is to ensure that trusted connectivity becomes part of how India defines its next era of leadership in electronics and telecoms.
The future of Indian manufacturing will be built on confidence: that products made in India can meet global standards, that digital systems are resilient, and that innovation can be both homegrown and world-class.
In my experience, security is no longer an optional feature added later. It is a market enabler. The countries and companies that understand this early are the ones that create a durable advantage. The opportunity is not simply to participate in the global connected-device market, but to help shape it. India is well-positioned to do exactly that.
About the authorVincent Korstanje is CEO of Kigen, a global leader in secure eSIM hardware and management solutions for IoT and consumer manufacturers participating in Make in India and Digital India, as well as exporters with global ambition. Mr. Korstanje brings 22 years of experience leading innovation at semiconductor giant Arm and is recognized for his leadership in driving disruptive technology that creates shared value. Kigen India represents over 30% of Kigen’s globally recognized expert and customer excellence headquarters in Noida, with local sales in Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune. Find out more at
https://kigen.com/india/ and follow Kigen on LinkedIn.
