Lessons from India’s Digital Public Infrastructure Journey
NS Ramnath
Business Journalist, Author & Alumnus of SSSIHL
India’s journey in harnessing digital technology to tackle complex societal challenges at an unprecedented scale has captured the attention of the world, notably in the G20 Summit in New Delhi last year. Its unique approach, epitomized by the creation of digital public infrastructure offers useful lessons for countries grappling with similar issues of inclusion, empowerment,
and service delivery.
At the heart of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) lies a group of technology platforms and protocols that facilitate essential functions such as identity authentication (Aadhaar and eKYC), document signing and sharing (eSign and DigiLocker), digital payments (UPI), and
secure data sharing (Data Empowerment and Protection Architecture or DEPA). “No country has built a more comprehensive digital infrastructure than India,” Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, said last year.
The vision behind this infrastructure was to lay a foundation upon which government, businesses and civil society could build innovative solutions to serve the diverse needs of India’s billion-plus population. Its impact has been transformative. Aadhaar, the biometric identity system, now encompasses over 1.25 billion people, making it the largest platform of its kind worldwide. It has played a pivotal role in driving financial inclusion, making it easy for banks to open accounts, and for the government to make direct cash transfers to the needy during critical times, such as the recent coronavirus pandemic. For marginalized communities, such as the homeless, Aadhaar happened to be the first official proof of identity, unlocking access to vital services and benefits. Similarly, UPI, the mobile payments interface, has changed financial transactions. Over 117 billion transactions happened over UPI in 2023, many of them by small vendors who could not have afforded point of sale (PoS) terminals earlier.
However, India’s technological journey has not been smooth; this brings to light the challenges of implementing digital solutions at this scale in a society marked by vast diversity and deep-rooted inequalities. Bringing a billion people into the digital world inevitably exposes them to risks such as fraud, data breaches, privacy infringements, and exclusion due to system failures or inadequate digital literacy. Navigating these challenges has been a constant learning process for India, one that holds valuable lessons for other nations.
India’s approach offers five key and inter-related lessons for those seeking to emulate its model:
- Empower local problem-solvers:
DPI’s philosophy is rooted in the belief that the best solutions emerge from those closest to the problems. Rather than imposing top-down, one-size-fits-all approaches, the focus is on providing a foundational infrastructure enabling local actors – governments, established businesses, startups, or non-profits – to build contextually relevant solutions. Such decentralization fosters innovation, adaptability, and responsiveness to the diverse needs of communities across the country. Dr Pramod Varma, Aadhaar’s architect and one of the key brains behind DPIs, likens it to Lego blocks, using which people who understand the problem build an appropriate solution. Over time, this also builds technological capacity. - Foster multi-stakeholder collaboration:
The development and evolution of DPI have been shaped by the complex interplay of forces across civil society, government and markets, or Samaaj, Sarkar and Bazaar, as Infosys chairman Nandan Nilekani terms it. (He was responsible for the rollout of Aadhaar, and kickstarting DPI). Each of these stakeholders brings unique perspectives, capabilities, and incentives to the table. Aligning these diverse interests and fostering collaboration is crucial for the success and sustainability of digital initiatives. Creating platforms for dialogue, coordination, and partnership among these stakeholders is not easy, due to the sometimes conflicting goals of various players. India pulled it off in some areas by starting with a coalition of like-minded people, however small. - Protect core principles:
As the applications built on DPI evolve and expand, it is crucial to ensure that the core principles underlying the platform remain intact. For example, one of the core principles in the digital economy (and digital public infrastructure) is the idea that individuals should have control over their personal data. (Think of it as data capital). It is hard, but staying true to this foundational value is essential to maintain trust and prevent misuse. This will need robust governance frameworks and accountability mechanisms. DPI is not just about building technology, but also about building institutions. - Drive systemic change:
India’s journey has shown that digitalizing isolated elements is insufficient to create lasting impact. True transformation requires a holistic approach that cuts across sectors and silos. The identity, payments, and data-sharing layers of DPI work in unison, complemented by enabling laws and regulations, to drive systemic change. This integrated approach has unlocked new possibilities, such as using digital identity to streamline welfare delivery or leveraging digital payments to expand financial inclusion. Pursuing such systemic change requires a long-term vision, sustained commitment, and the ability to navigate complex ecosystems. - Balance long-term vision with immediate needs:
India’s approach to digital transformation is guided by a vision of an inclusive, empowered, and digitally enabled future. However, this long-term aspiration needs to be balanced with a pragmatic focus on solving real problems for real people today. DPI’s design is modular and incrementally expandable, allowing for the creation of value-adding applications even as the larger vision unfolds, dictated by evolving societal needs and technology. For example, in the light of recent developments in Artificial Intelligence, India can use the tech capabilities from the innovations on the top of DPI to create use cases for India, which inturn could contribute to the data capital, a key element in DPIs. The additional layers of technology, such as AI, can potentially reinforce the benefits of DPI, by building on it. Nandan Nilekani calls this phenomenon “digital public intelligence”.
As India’s digital journey continues to unfold, three overarching principles emerge.
● First, technology is merely a tool; it is the choices made by people and institutions in deploying these tools that shape outcomes.
● Second, inclusion is not an afterthought but a central design principle in the creation of digital public infrastructure. Ensuring that the benefits of technology reach the most marginalized is both a moral imperative and a strategic necessity.
● Finally, the process of digital transformation is an iterative one, requiring a willingness to experiment, learn, and adapt continuously.
For nations seeking to harness the potential of digital technologies to address their unique challenges, India’s experience offers many lessons. It highlights the possibilities of innovation and leapfrogging, but also underscores the complex challenges of implementation at scale. As countries chart their digital journeys, they must navigate the tensions between standardization
and customization, between speed and deliberation, and between efficiency and equity.
India’s digital story is still being written, but the lessons it offers are already shaping the global conversation on technology for development. In 2019, speaking at the Centre for Global Development in Washington, Nandan Nilekani offered a succinct piece of advice to the countries that wanted to adopt DPIs. He said: “Start small, start anywhere, start today.” The insights from India’s journey can help illuminate the path for others, making that first step a little less daunting and a little more promising.
(NS Ramnath is a business journalist based in Bangalore. He has written for The Economic Times and Forbes India among others. He is the coauthor of The Aadhaar Effect, published in 2018 by the Oxford University Press. He is currently working on a book on how Sridhar Vembu and his team built Zoho, India’s bootstrapped Unicorn. He is an alumnus of Sri Sathya Institute
of Higher Learning, Prasanthi Nilayam.)