This chapter conceptually reconsiders the relationship between the state, surveillance and democracy in India in the light of advancements in modern digital technologies. As data collection has begun to be treated as storable material to rejuvenate governance, democracy and development, the nature of Indian state is retreaded in the twenty-first century. A “retreaded state” connotes how the state introduced new layers of institutional agencies, legal procedures and technological mechanisms to monitor and control ever larger areas of society. The chapter regards surveillance not merely as a technological entity but also as a grand narrative, which has accreted as a cultural entity to reduce fear, insecurity, misgovernance and corruption. Paradoxically, such technologies promise access to speedy public service delivery and welfare. However, in the production of this cultural discourse, the utilisation of “surveilling” technologies for mass surveillance and for state’s ideological and developmental discourse is something outside the grand narrative. Here, the political vocabulary of such a state has been retwined under the rhetoric of security and development discourse. This chapter aims to understand the means adopted by the Indian state to achieve its ends and unravels the different procedures and mechanisms of surveillance. It also examines the counter-effects of deploying surveillance in Indian democracy.