New Delhi, Feb 9 : The government on Monday said India has improved its global â??Network Readiness Index 2025â?? (NRI 2025) position by four slots and is now placed at 45th rank, leading in several indicators.

The report has been published by the Portulans Institute, an independent, non-profit research and educational institute based in Washington, DC.

â??India has not only improved its ranking but has also improved its score from 53.63 out of 100 in 2024 to 54.43 out of 100 in 2025. It is noteworthy that India leads in several indicators,â?? said Ministry of Communications.

The report maps the network-based readiness landscape of 127 economies based on their performance on four pillars -- Technology, People, Governance and Impact -- covering a total of 53 indicators.

According to the report, India secured 1st rank in â??Annual investment in telecommunication servicesâ??, â??AI scientific publicationsâ??, â??ICT services exportsâ?? and â??E-commerce legislationâ??, 2nd rank in â??FTTH/Building Internet subscriptionsâ??, â??Mobile broadband internet traffic within the countryâ?? and â??International Internet bandwidthâ??, and 3rd rank in â??Domestic market scaleâ?? and â??Income Inequalityâ??.

The ministry said India now has greater network readiness than would be expected given its income level. The country is ranked second in the group of lower-middle-income countries.

Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said recently that India now has worldâ??s lowest data costs and highest data usage, driven by robust digital infrastructure. There are more than 120 crore mobile users in the country and the 4G network is expected to reach every village by June this year.

BSNL has installed a total of 97,068 4G sites, and 93,511 sites are â??On-Airâ?? (till October 31, 2025). The state-run telecom operation aims to upgrade all 4G towers to 5G within the next few months.

Meanwhile, the 5G services have been rolled out in all states and union territories (UTs) across the country and presently, these are available in 99.9 per cent of the districts.

Telecom service providers (TSPs) have installed 5.08 lakh 5G Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs) across rural and urban area of the country.

/IANS