डिजिटल भारत के बाद: अगला मोर्चा – मानव निर्णय

In an age where artificial intelligence (AI) can convincingly simulate voices, faces and facts with alarming precision, it is intellectual resilience and not technical access which is now the nation’s biggest developmental challenge.

India’s digital transformation has connected its entire population. Yet in an age where artificial intelligence (AI) can convincingly simulate voices, faces and facts with alarming precision, it is intellectual resilience and not technical access which is now the nation’s biggest developmental challenge. Digital access will be as vital to the future of Indian democracy, economic growth and social cohesion as the evolution of human judgment.

All it took was a phone call. A 59-year-old woman from Hyderabad has transferred Rs 1.4 lakhs in response to what seemed like an urgent call from her nephew. The voice sounded just like his, with the familiar Punjabi accent, and he said he had been in a car accident and was detained by police, begging for quick transfer of money. It was only later she realised it was not his voice, but had been generated by AI, crafted with enough accuracy to exploit familial trust.1

This incident was more than just a cybercrime, and it signalled a significant shift in the nature of the digital divide. For the past 20 years, the focus was on access — who possessed devices, internet, and digital infrastructure. While access still remains relevant, it is no longer the primary concern. Over the next decade, the ability to distinguish between reality and manufactured illusions will differentiate those who can from those who cannot.

“Digital India” is one of the few public policy projects that completely changed India. The phenomenal success of the unified payments interface (UPI), the increasing availability of broadband and the affordability of smartphones have all resulted in the unprecedented democratisation of digital participation. Millions of people who were not in the formal digital economy are now using handheld devices for commerce, communication, education and government. By most traditional measures, India has bridged the infrastructure gap that once kept large sections of the population remote.

But there is a more subtle and important shortcoming lurking beneath this outstanding achievement. According to national studies, only around 38 per cent of Indian households have at least one person who can independently use a computer or smartphone to access the internet.2 In rural India, the number is about one in four homes. India has made substantial investments to provide its citizens with access to digital networks, but it has invested far less in equipping students with the skills needed to navigate those networks critically.

At the outset, the digital divide has experienced three main stages. The first problem was about access. The second stage focused on operational skills. Currently, we are at the stage where we face a new imminent challenge of right judgment. In an information-driven environment that is increasingly saturated with synthetic media, algorithmically generated content, and plausible falsehoods, technical know-how is not enough. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has rightly observed that in the digital age, critical thinking, ethical awareness, media literacy, and technological competence are essential for meaningful participation.3 Thus, we have to view digital literacy as a democratic right and a professional skill.

The urgency of this change is becoming difficult to ignore. Generative AI has dramatically lowered the cost of making convincing lies. During the last General Elections in India, AI-generated videos of political leaders saying things they never said went viral on social media. To an average viewer, distinguishing the fake from reality is nearly impossible. International cybersecurity experts report that deepfake content is expanding rapidly.4 Indian fact-checkers are detecting more and more hyperlocal AI-generated false information written in regional languages and exploiting cultural familiarity. As a result, lies are now extremely persuasive, cheap and scalable.

The implications extend far beyond a single case of financial theft. The notion of democracy rests on the idea that people are adequately informed to make their own political decisions. Public reasoning is at risk because each image, word, and video can be produced with astonishing realism. This concern is genuine, and India’s Information Technology Minister has earlier termed deepfakes a threat to democratic institutions.5 The main issue is that manipulation could replace meaningful debate in societies that struggle to tell apart genuine evidence from counterfeit misinformation.

Moreover, this is not just a political issue; rather, it is a financial concern. As AI becomes more ubiquitous across industries, competitive advantage will go to those who know when to challenge the AI system, not just those who know how to use it. The defining workforce skill of the next generation will be trained scepticism and not merely unquestioned technology proficiency. The most valuable workforce in an economy increasingly driven by algorithms will be those who can spot bias, validate information, find fraud, and exercise independent judgment where robots cannot.

However, not everyone will experience this change equally. The most vulnerable groups to digital deception are the elderly, first-generation internet users, women in digitally marginalised areas, and populations that communicate exclusively in regional languages because of their lack of informational defences. National-level data reveal a troubling socio-economic divide, which records that only 17 per cent of households in the lowest income quartile are digitally literate, compared to over 77 per cent in the highest income quartile.6 Today, in India, inequality is increasingly defined by disparities in cognitive resilience rather than just wealth or opportunity. Access to truthful information is no longer uniformly distributed.

An encouraging outline of a suitable response is starting to take shape. UNESCO now regards media and information literacy as a fundamental democratic skill.7 For example, Singapore focuses on responsible AI use and digital ethics in addition to technical knowledge, while Finland has integrated critical media education into its curriculum. India has also made promising initial moves with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s “YUVA AI for ALL”8 project and the broadened literacy scope in the National Education Policy.9 These are essential steps, but they must not remain isolated initiatives.

Now a national architecture for digital judging has become necessary. Teacher training must incorporate AI ethics and media verification skills. We should not see digital literacy as a narrow technology subject, but instead promote habits of evidence-based reasoning from the very start of the school curriculum. India’s extensive network of Common Service Centres can also serve as community centres for public awareness on online frauds, deepfakes, and information verification. Awareness efforts should also prepare vulnerable groups with useful techniques for detecting more complex deceit, especially in regional languages. Ultimately, policy success should be measured by whether people have the confidence to question their digital content, rather than solely by metrics like broadband access or app downloads.

Some may argue that an individual is the ultimate arbiter of truth. History, however, suggests otherwise. In India, encouraging self-education did not lead to widespread literacy. Instead, the State provided constitutional protections and established schools, treating education as a public good essential for democratic participation. That same political approach should be applied to the development of digital judgment. Its absence endangers not only personal financial security but also national resilience, social cohesion, institutional legitimacy, and electoral integrity.

The first decade of Digital India focused on connecting people to information. The next decade’s key challenge should be empowering citizens to question that information. In the age of AI, a country’s most vital digital infrastructure is not just fibre-optic networks or data centres — it is a population capable of independent thought as machines advance in persuasive abilities. Therefore, India’s next digital frontier is not merely connectivity, but the capacity of citizens to critically evaluate what they see, hear and share in a space which is increasingly shaped by AI-generated content.

*BA LLB (Hons.), LLM, University of Cambridge; Advocate, Supreme Court of India, Madras and Delhi High Courts, Empanelled Counsel, Supreme Court Legal Services Committee (SCLSC). Author can be reached at: thajaswini.cb@gmail.com.

**4th year law student, Assam University, Silchar. Author can be reached at: madhabenduchak.gov@gmail.com.

1. Ankita Chakravarti, “He Sounded Exactly Like My Nephew: Woman Loses Rs 1.4 Lakh in AI Voice Scam”, India Today (17-11-2023, 12.54 p.m.) available at <https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/news/story/he-sounded-exactly-like-my-nephew-woman-loses-rs-14-lakh-in-ai-voice-scam-2463939-2023-11-17>.

2. V. Mothkoor and F. Mumtaz, “The Digital Dream: Upskilling India for the Future”, Ideas for India, 23-3-2021, available at <https://www.ideasforindia.in/topics/governance/the-digital-dream-upskilling-india-for-the-future.html>.

3. UNESCO, “Media and Information Literacy and Digital Competencies”, 12-4-2025, available at <https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/media-and-information-literacy-and-digital-competencies>.

4. Debarshi Dasgupta, “Deepfake Videos Raise Concern in India Ahead of General Election”, The Straits Times (18-12-2023, 8.45 a.m.) available at <https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/south-asia/deepfake-videos-raise-concern-in-india-ahead-of-general-elections>.

5. Yashraj Sharma, “Deepfake Democracy: Behind the AI Trickery Shaping India’s 2024 Election”, Al Jazeera, 20-2-2024, available at <https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/20/deepfake-democracy-behind-the-ai-trickery-shaping-indias-2024-elections>.

6. V. Mothkoor and F. Mumtaz, “The Digital Dream: Upskilling India for the Future”, Ideas for India, 23-3-2021, available at <https://www.ideasforindia.in/topics/governance/the-digital-dream-upskilling-india-for-the-future.html>.

7. UNESCO, “Media and Information Literacy and Digital Competencies”, 12-4-2025, available at <https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/media-and-information-literacy-and-digital-competencies>.

8. Press Release, Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India, Government of India Launches ‘YUVA AI for ALL’ — A Free National Course to Help Everyone Understand Artificial Intelligence, 18-11-2025, available at <https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2191334>.

9. Press Release, Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Education, Government of India, Elevating Literacy: India Embraces a Wider Skillset for All Including Digital Literacy, 28-8-2024, available at <https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2049494>.

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