Digital Twin (DT) technology has evolved into a cornerstone of Industry 4.0, enabling real-time synchronization between physical and digital systems for predictive maintenance, optimization, and resilience. This paper systematically reviews global DT advancements across industrial operations, construction, and telecommunications, identifying technological and policy gaps relevant to South Asia. Despite mature DT deployments in manufacturing and 5G-driven economies, adoption in developing regions remains limited by skill shortages, regulatory voids, and low infrastructure readiness. Using Sri Lanka as an anchor case, the study synthesizes global insights to propose a Telecom-Centric Digital Twin Framework designed for resource-constrained contexts. The proposed framework integrates a Digital Nervous System (Twin Core) with Decision Intelligence, Model-as-a-Service (MaaS), Federated Learning, and Sustainability and Digital Thread layers, supported by 5G, edge, and AI-driven analytics. The paper concludes with a phased roadmap for South Asian DT adoption, emphasizing cognitive intelligence, policy alignment, and telecom-enabled resilience to accelerate sustainable Industry 4.0 transitions.
Perera et al. (Wed,) studied this question.