India’s digital and industrial transformation is nothing short of extraordinary. From the streets of Tier-3 towns to the factories of industrial corridors, intelligent systems and devices are the unseen force driving progress. In 2024 alone, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) processed over INR 200 trillion (about USD 2.4 trillion) in transactions, drones mapped millions of rural properties under the SVAMITVA scheme, and over 12 million closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras watched over smart cities. Yet, as we celebrate these milestones, a quiet vulnerability lingers: the control of these devices.
These are not just gadgets. They are networked computers, pulsing with firmware, telemetry and updates orchestrated from servers far beyond our borders. Walk into a kirana store for a quick UPI scan, board a metro with automated fare collection (AFC), or glance at a surveillance feed in a bustling market. Each interaction hinges on devices governed by foreign platforms.
That raises a profound question: how sovereign is India’s intelligent edge? Our knowledge paper uncovers the hidden risks in the intelligent systems and devices being deployed in India. It reviews India’s key digital sovereignty initiatives, highlights gaps in device management platform coverage, and charts a phased path to sovereignty. It also looks in detail at one use case: point-of-sale terminals.
The Guild Co. is among those catalysing this shift towards neutral, India-hosted platforms. But this is a national call: for policymakers, industry and innovators to act before dependencies turn into disruptions.
The Guild Co. is working with the vision to be a neutrality enabler, not just a hardware provider. We are building a multi-tenant, India-hosted device management platform (DMP): a compliant gateway that puts India at the core without upending global supply. We won’t be the only one, and that is fine. The scale and scope of India’s digital ecosystem will support multiple players, and we all need to come together to drive this.