A bilateral meeting was held on 18 February 2026 at Sanchar Bhawan, New Delhi, between Sh. Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, Union Minister of Communications and Development of the North Eastern Region, India, and Mr. Karsten Wildberger, Federal Minister for Digital Transformation and Government Modernization, Federal Republic of Germany, to advance cooperation in telecommunications and digital transformation under the broader Indo-German Strategic Partnership. The discussions reflected mutual respect and appreciation for each other’s technological achievements, with both ministers agreeing that the present times offer significant opportunity for deeper collaboration in telecom and emerging technologies.
The meeting assumes significance since it followed the signing of the Joint Declaration of Intent (JDI) on 10 January 2026 during the India–Germany Summit, which establishes a forward-looking and non-binding framework for structured collaboration in telecommunications and digital governance under the broader Indo-German Strategic Partnership.
Both sides welcomed the JDI as an important milestone reflecting shared values of openness, trust, innovation, and resilience in digital ecosystems. The JDI provides a flexible platform for the exchange of best practices, policy dialogue, scientific and technical cooperation, and the formulation of joint work plans to translate shared intent into actionable initiatives.
Hon’ble Minister Scindia stressed that the partnership should move beyond broad statements of intent toward structured and results-oriented implementation. He shared India’s digital transformation journey, highlighting that India today has over 1.23 billion telecom subscribers and nearly a billion internet users. 5G coverage extends to approximately 99.9% of the districts, supported by data tariffs averaging around USD 0.10 per GB, making connectivity widely accessible and affordable. He underscored that India has laid a robust digital carriageway that offers significant avenues for international collaboration. He highlighted the availability of affordable voice and data tariffs, which are among the lowest globally, and underscored India’s success in building Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI). In particular, he referred to the transformative impact of Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which has scaled globally as a model for interoperable digital payments; Unified Payments Interface (UPI), a fully indigenous stack processing approximately 250 billion transactions annually; and its being adopted by multiple partner countries.
The German minister expressed appreciation for India’s technological achievements and conveyed Germany’s interest in structured and forward-looking collaboration in advanced telecom systems, digital governance, and secure networks. He shared Germany’s experience in quantum encryption and secure information transport, including a demonstration of quantum communication over a 35 km link for 11 consecutive days. The German minister underlined the importance of being actively engaged with India to harness the full potential of 6G technologies.
