Archives of Current Research International

Digital technologies are now embedded in Indian schooling and higher education, but institutional responsibility for students’ digital well-being remains conceptually fragmented. This critical narrative review examines how Indian educational institutions and policy systems are addressing the benefits, burdens and risks of digitally mediated learning, with attention to screen exposure, sleep and attention, problematic smartphone or internet use, cyberbullying, mental-health support, digital access and culturally situated family practices. Literature published from 1 January 2010 to 4 July 2026 was prioritised, with earlier foundational work included where conceptually necessary. Evidence was integrated from education, psychology, public health, communication and human–computer interaction, alongside Indian governmental and educational guidance. The review finds that India has developed substantial but largely parallel institutional strands: digital-learning expansion, pedagogical guidance for online education, cyber-safety and anti-bullying measures, and student mental-health initiatives. These strands have not yet matured into a coherent, evaluated institutional digital well-being framework. Indian empirical research identifies meaningful associations between problematic digital use, sleep disturbance, distress and cyber-victimisation, yet much of the evidence is cross-sectional, scale-dependent and concentrated in selected student populations. Evidence for simple screen-time thresholds or blanket device bans as stand-alone well-being interventions is comparatively weak. More defensible institutional practice combines learning-design discipline, protection of sleep and recovery time, cyber-safeguarding, digital citizenship, privacy-respecting support, equitable offline or low-bandwidth alternatives, and family–institution co-regulation that does not collapse into surveillance. Cultural adaptation is essential because device ownership, gendered access, shared-device use, family authority, help-seeking and educational expectations vary markedly across Indian settings. The next phase requires longitudinal and intervention research, implementation evaluation, validated multidimensional outcomes and explicit integration of equity, safety and learner agency.