By Neehar Pathare, MD, CEO & CIO, 63SATS Cybertech
The new world order is being written not in ink, but in algorithms. Every nation, organisation, and citizen is now part of an unrelenting race, not for digital transformation, but for digital trust. As lives, economies, and governance move online, trust has become the invisible infrastructure powering every interaction. It is the assurance that systems will perform reliably. Data will remain private, and that technology will act in the service of humanity rather than at its expense. In an era defined by cyberattacks, misinformation as well as algorithmic bias, the credibility of digital systems has become a marker of national strength.
The global contest for digital trust is, therefore, not a battle of technology alone; it is a test of governance, ethics, and resilience. For India, which has already demonstrated digital inclusion at a remarkable scale, the next frontier is to build a digital economy the world can both admire and depend on.
Trust as the New Currency
In the modern hyperconnected world, trust has replaced convenience as the true currency of digital engagement. Every transaction, whether on a banking app or an e-governance portal, is based on an unspoken belief: systems are secure and intentions are transparent. Nevertheless, this belief remains under constant pressure.
The PwC 2024 Global Digital Trust Insights report shows that 52 per cent of Indian organisations see cloud-related threats as their biggest concern, followed by attacks on connected devices and software supply-chain compromises. In addition, nearly half of the respondents believe a cyberattack could lead to a loss of customer data or revenue, a sentiment that captures the fragility of digital confidence in a hyper-digital economy.
However, India’s approach to fostering resilience is quite remarkable. With 49 per cent of Indian business leaders prioritising technology modernisation and 45 per cent focusing on optimising existing systems, the country’s digital investments are shifting decisively from expansion to fortification.
Reimagining India’s Trust Architecture
India’s digital evolution is ranked among the most ambitious in the world. The country is reaching billions via public digital infrastructure that integrates identity, payments as well as data sharing. Aadhaar alone has enrolled over 1.3 billion residents. On the other hand, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) processes over 10 billion transactions every month. These platforms have drastically reduced friction in service delivery and financial access while bringing down identity verification costs from as high as USD 20 to just USD 0.27 per transaction.
Yet, as adoption grows, new challenges come to the fore. When systems handle such vast data flows, their resilience becomes a matter of national trust. Incidents such as the public data leak affecting over 20 million citizens highlight the pressing need for security-by-design frameworks. This is because they evolve as fast as the technologies themselves. India’s response has been to strengthen its institutional backbone. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDPA) and Data Empowerment and Protection Architecture (DEPA) are also launched to anchor privacy and consent. Moreover, the Standardisation Testing and Quality Certification (STQC) framework benchmarks public systems for safety, resilience. and privacy compliance.
India’s digital trust framework is further significantly reinforced with the inauguration of the National Centre for Digital Trust (NCDT) in July 2025. Established by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), this Centre serves as the national hub for digital assurance. It unites key elements, including public key infrastructure, authentication as well as post-quantum cryptography under a unified mission. This, in turn, signals the country’s commitment to treating trust as a public good.
Compliance as Confidence
Globally, compliance is converting from a bureaucratic obligation into a strategic advantage. In India, where 2024 alone saw more than 9,420 regulatory updates, over 36 per day, compliance is swiftly becoming an enabler of digital trust instead of being a constraint on innovation. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act has already set new standards for transparency, consent, and accountability, while the STQC certification ensures that critical systems such as surveillance and healthcare technologies meet strict safety and privacy criteria.
For firms and government agencies alike, compliance signals maturity. It reassures citizens that the systems they rely on, from hospital monitoring networks to smart city command centres, are governed by clear, ethical and verifiable standards. It also encourages global partners that India’s digital infrastructure can operate efficiently throughout jurisdictions. In the long run, this “compliance premium” could well define which countries earn the confidence to lead the global digital economy.
The Measure of a Trusted Nation
India’s digital evolution now stands at the crossroads of intelligence and integrity. Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the way enterprises defend, decide, and deliver. Nonetheless, its promise will endure only if anchored in trust. The launch of initiatives like NCDT signals a national intent to make assurance a public good, not a mere regulatory checkbox. Having mastered inclusion, India’s next frontier lies in building confidence, systems that are transparent, secure plus ethically governed. The world will measure digital strength not by how fast technology advances, but by how deeply trust is embedded within it. For India, that trust is both infrastructure and ideal, the invisible currency of a digital economy the world can admire and rely on.