India’s success in recent years in developing a robust Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) domestically offers it a splendid global opportunity which must be seized at all costs. The DPI includes a network of services such as digital identity (Aadhar); real-time payment system (UPI) and a number of other public service applications in multiple sectors, such as education (Diksha) and healthcare (Arogya Setu) that are available through the internet on the computer or the mobile phone.

The size, scale and success of India’s DPI can be gauged from the fact that Aadhar has provided identity to 1.3 billion Indians and the digital payments interface, UPI (Unified Payments Interface), registered 16.58 billion transactions worth ₹23.5 trillion in a single month as of October 2024, with more than 500 million users and 50 million merchants. The DPI has not made a global impact like DeepSeek, China’s low-cost and innovative AI (artificial intelligence) alternative to ChatGPT which shook Wall Street. Nevertheless, the success of the DPI has won the admiration of entire nations and experts the world over.

Earlier this month, at the AI Action Summit in Paris, Google CEO Sundar Pichai met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and praised the fact that the Aadhar identity for a billion-plus Indians had been built at a very low cost. Pichai appreciated that the DPI was built around an open and accessible network with regulations and had a wide range of applications “to modernise the economy, reform governance and transform lives.”

Last week, in a session on ‘African Transformation: From Aid to Investment’ at Pune International Centre’s Asia Economic Dialogue 2025 conference, Africa expert Prof. Hebatallah Adam said, “Africa needs assistance from India in capacity building. The DPI is an area where India could help the African nations.”

At the same conference, Rajnish Kumar, former chairman of the State Bank of India and, at present, chairman of Mastercard India, pointed out that as of August 2024, SBI’s Digital Banking App, ‘Yono’ (You Only Need One) had 80 million registered users, more than the population of the UK or Germany. Pointing out that more than 90% of transactions were not happening in SBI branches, he said, “UPI is the finest example of public-private partnership.” He described UPI as the “envy of the world,” which had given considerable confidence to India’s banking system.

At a conference in 2023, Nandan Nilekani said the DPIs were now “pervasive, ubiquitous and transformational in the way things happen in India.” The focus on security and privacy was there “right from the beginning,” and the DPI was rechristened as “Digital Public Intelligence” as it was being enhanced with the powers of AI. The improved version would enable even a farmer to get the most relevant agriculture-related information, in his own language, on his mobile phone, at the click of a button, he said.

In fact, in an interview in September 2024, Nilekani, founding chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which provides Aadhar services, said that India’s DPIs had been deployed in 15 countries and plans were afoot to take it to 50 nations in the next 5 years. India’s G20 presidency and the release of the ‘Report of India’s G20 Task Force on Digital Infrastructure’ by the Indian G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant and Nilekani in July 2024 gave considerable momentum to India’s DPI initiatives.

As of today, India does not have a single global product in the world markets, unlike other Asian nations such as China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. India succeeded in countering technology denial in isolated cases such as the Param supercomputer, the atomic energy programme, and, notably, the space programme. However, the failure to pursue economic reforms with sustained momentum; the stifling stranglehold of ‘License Raj’ on Indian industries; the poor spending on R&D by the private and public sectors, and an absence of “Ease of Business” conditions resulted in the nation’s failure to develop world-class products.

Perhaps, India’s success with the DPI could open up the opportunity to develop, customise and deploy a Digital Public Infrastructure for other nations. Recently, during an interaction with students from Solapur at Pune’s IISER (Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research), Dinanath Kholkar, a former senior executive at TCS and a trustee at PIC, spoke on ‘Unlocking India’s Digital Potential, Leveraging Digital India and Indiastack.global for Inclusive Growth.’

He outlined the enormous opportunities that young Indian IT professionals had in the DPI space. “India’s global opportunity lies between the US and China,” he said, and this could be realised through customisation of the DPI for the underdeveloped and developing world, a point also made by Prof. Adam, quoted above. In fact, experts say that India’s DPI is far ahead of that in many developed nations. While giving billions of dollars’ worth of business to France and other developed nations, it would help boost India’s confidence if a DPI business was secured from them in return.

The author is a journalist, public policy scholar and former Director, Pune International Centre. He tweets at @abhay_vaidya