What is India Stack?

Table of Contents☰

About India Stack

It is a set of Application Programming Interface (APIs) that allows governments, businesses, startups and developers to utilise a unique digital Infrastructure.
India Stack consists of three layers of open APIs: identity, payments, and data.
Although the name of this project bears the word India, the vision of India Stack is not limited to one country.
It can be applied to any nation, be it a developed one or an emerging one.
The four distinct technology layers provided are
- Presenceless layer: Where a universal biometric digital identity allows people to participate in any service from anywhere in the country.
- Paperless layer: Where digital records move with an individual’s digital identity, eliminating the need for massive amount of paper collection and storage.
- Cashless layer: Where a single interface to all the country’s bank accounts and wallets to democratize payments.
- Consent layer: Which allows data to move freely and securely to democratize the market for data?
Some of the APIs that are a central part of India Stack: Aadhaar Proof, Aadhaar e-KYC, e-Sign, Digital Locker, Unified Payment Interface.

Q1) What is API?

It stands for Application Programming Interface. In the context of APIs, the word Application refers to any software with a distinct function. Interface can be thought of as a contract of service between two applications. This contract defines how the two communicate with each other using requests and responses.

Source: India signs MoU with Colombia on sharing India’s open-sourced DPIs