Visitors crowd the Huawei stand at the 2016 CeBIT digital technology trade fair on the fair's opening day. Sean Gallup | Getty Images

"Indian companies have found that Chinese-made equipment is the key to their ability to provide the services they do at the prices that are, perhaps, the lowest in the world," echoed Manoj Joshi, distinguished fellow at Indian think tank Observer Research Foundation, in a note earlier this month. Modi's government plans to replace the current 4G network with fifth generation technology — 5G for short — by 2020. New Delhi plans to auction 5G spectrum to telcos in the second half of 2019 but domestic carriers such as Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel want the government to delay auctions until 2020. If other emerging markets open their doors to Huawei's 5G equipment while more Western nations close theirs, there could be a scenario where the developing and developed world have different 5G standards, according to Joshi. That means the world would effectively be re-bordered into two technological spheres, he said.

Potential US pressure on India

"India will not be unaffected by the technology war between America and China," C. Raja Mohan, nonresident senior fellow at Carnegie India, said in a recent note. "As Washington goes after Huawei, the crown jewel of China's technology companies, Delhi's own exposure to the company will come under scrutiny." India is a major U.S. security ally as well as a crucial player in Washington's Indo-Pacific blueprint, which many political analysts interpret as Trump's way of containing Chinese dominance in Asia. The U.S. has defined Indo-Pacific as the region "from the United States to India, from Japan to Australia, and everywhere in between." Palit believes the Indian government is "best placed to make its own choices" on matters of domestic economic development "regardless of what it might mean for some other countries." But New Delhi also has its own concerns regarding Huawei, which has been operating in the South Asian state since 1999. In 2014, India launched an investigation into allegations that Huawei was hacking into state-run telecoms carrier Bharat Sanchar Nigam — claims that Huawei India denied. That came after New Delhi in 2010 blocked domestic carriers from importing Chinese telecoms equipment on fears that spying technology was embedded into hardware from China. "Amidst the new global pushback against Huawei and India's own plans to introduce 5G mobile technology, Delhi might have to revisit the old arguments and take a fresh look at its relationship with the Chinese tech giant," said Mohan.

Watch: What is 5G?