Developing countries must shape, not merely adopt, global technology standards. Discuss in the context of India's role at the ITU.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is a UN specialised agency. Its technical standards and spectrum rules decide how much networks cost, how they are designed and how secure they are. At the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference (PP-26) in Doha in November 2026, India argued that developing countries must help shape these rules, "not merely adopt them" [1]. Behind this demand lie digital equity and strategic autonomy.

Why shaping the rules matters

• Equity: 2.2 billion people are still offline, mostly in the Global South [1]. Standards built for rich urban markets make rural rollout more expensive.
• Economic: countries that only adopt standards pay royalties and import equipment. Countries that write them capture value and build domestic manufacturing.
• Spectrum: frequencies are allocated in global forums. These decisions shape whether poorer states can get affordable broadband and satellite access.
• Security: cyber threats cross borders, so the countries most exposed need a say in the rules [1].

India's role at the ITU

• Standards leadership: India's pioneering resolutions won global backing at WTSA-24, held in New Delhi [2].
• Institutional voice: India is bidding to host PP-2030 and seeking re-election to the ITU Council (2027–30) [3].
• Models others can copy: BharatNet (about $15 bn of public investment) supports the Samriddh Gram Centres, a WSIS Prize winner. India also has 100 5G use-case labs and the Bharat 6G Vision, which brings telecom, AI and satellites together [1].
• South–South cooperation: at PP-26, India held bilateral talks with Malaysia, Iran and Uzbekistan on cyber fraud and quantum cooperation [1].

Constraints

• Weak R&D and patent base: standards bodies are dominated by firms that hold large patent portfolios.
• Gap between claims and results at home: CAG found only 17.91% of BharatNet bandwidth in use and average fault repair times of 17 days [4]. Only about 30% of Gram Panchayats had a working connection [5].

Way forward

• Fund indigenous standards research and send industry and academia to ITU study groups.
• Build a Global South caucus to push shared spectrum positions.
• Make sure the network is actually used, through state fibre-leasing policies and state-wise audits [5].

India's ITU record shows that standard-takers can become standard-shapers if they bring technical capacity and proven models. If India pairs its diplomacy at Doha with stronger R&D and better use of its own networks, it can make global technology rules fairer. That would support SDG 9 (resilient infrastructure) and the principle of leaving no one offline.