India’s Digital Public Infrastructure, Significance, Components

India has become a global leader in Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) by building systems that are large-scale, open, and well-integrated, benefiting over 1.4 billion people.

What is Digital Public Infrastructure?

The United Nations defines Digital Public Infrastructure as foundational digital systems that form the backbone of modern societies. These systems enable secure and seamless interactions between people, businesses, and governments. They help verify identities, open bank accounts, facilitate instant digital payments, and allow safe data exchange. 

Digital Public Infrastructure Significance

Digital Public Infrastructure enables secure access to essential services. It allows people to:

• Prove their identity easily, anywhere.
• Access banking, insurance, and financial services.
• Receive welfare and government benefits directly.
• Participate in education, healthcare, and markets.

Much like railways once connected regions to economic opportunity, DPI now determines who can access rights, services, and opportunities in the digital age.

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Components of India’s Digital Public Infrastructure 

The JAM Trinity

India’s digital transformation started with the JAM trinity, which combines:

• Aadhaar:
  • A biometric identity system providing a unique ID for every resident. 
  • It allows secure authentication for government services and financial transactions. 
  • Over 144 crore Aadhaar numbers have been issued, making identity portable and reliable.
• Jan Dhan Yojana: 
  • Launched in 2014, it is one of the largest financial inclusion initiatives in the world. 
  • This scheme opened bank accounts for millions of unbanked adults, providing access to credit, insurance, pensions, and RuPay debit cards.
  •  Accounts grew from 14.7 crore in 2015 to 57.7 crore by 2026, bringing formal financial participation to millions.
• Mobile Connectivity:
  • Smartphones and 5G coverage now reach both urban and rural India. 
  • With over 85% of households owning a smartphone, citizens can access banking, education, health, and welfare services from anywhere.

Together, the JAM trinity linked identity, finance, and connectivity, forming the base for India’s larger DPI ecosystem.

India Stack

India Stack is a collection of digital platforms built on open APIs that connect identity, payments, and data at a national scale. These platforms are interoperable, meaning they can work together seamlessly, supporting governance, economic activity, and citizen services.

Key Components

India Stack consists of several interconnected platforms that enable digital services across payments, governance, healthcare, education, and citizen services. These platforms work together to make access efficient, transparent, and inclusive for all citizens.

Digital Economy Platforms

UPI (Unified Payments Interface)

• It enables instant, interoperable and secure transactions between individuals and merchants in real time.
• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recognised UPI as the world’s largest retail fast payment system by transaction volume.
• UPI accounts for around 49 percent of global real time payment transaction volume. 
• Within India, 81 percent by volume of total retail payment transactions are processed on UPI rails. 
• By 2026, it processed over 21 billion transactions, making it one of the world’s largest real-time payment systems.

PFMS (Public Financial Management System)

• It is a web based online transaction system that enables end to end monitoring of government funds and electronic payments to implementing agencies and beneficiaries.
• It ensures transparency in government fund transfers.
• It has helped remove duplicate and fake beneficiaries and reduce leakages. As a result, the government saved more than ₹4.31 lakh crore between 2015 and March 2024. 

ONDC (Open Network for Digital Commerce): 

• Launched in 2022, ONDC is an open network designed to democratise digital commerce by connecting buyers and sellers through interoperable platforms rather than a single marketplace. 
• It expands market access, reduces entry barriers and enables wider participation, particularly for small businesses.
• As of December 2025, there are a total of 1.16 lakh+ retail sellers live on ONDC from over 630+ cities and towns across India.

Government eMarketplace

• It provides an online platform for transparent and efficient procurement of goods and services by government entities. 
• Provides a transparent platform for government procurement, benefiting over 11 lakh micro and small enterprises.

Citizen Service Delivery Platforms

DigiLocker

• Launched in 2015, DigiLocker introduced a secure digital document wallet for citizens. 
• It allows individuals to store, access and share authenticated electronic documents with consent-based access.
• The platform ensures authenticity and reduces the use of fake documents.
• As of 5 March 2026, DigiLocker had 67.63 crore users. 
• By March 2026, over 950 crore documents had been issued through the platform, reflecting its growing role in public administration.

UMANG

• Launched in 2017, UMANG, or the Unified Mobile Application for New age Governance, was designed to advance mobile governance in India. 
• It provides a single window mobile and web platform to access services from central, state and local government bodies. 
• Citizens can use UMANG to access services such as EPFO balance and claims, PAN and Aadhaar services, DigiLocker access, utility bill payments, pension services, scholarship applications, passport related services, driving licence services, exam results, etc. 
•  As of March 5 2026, it recorded 10.25 crore user registrations and 723.36 crore transactions. 
• More than 2,400 government services are available on the portal, making it a key interface between citizens and the state.

e-Courts

• The e-Courts project is a pan India Mission Mode initiative under the Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice. 
• It seeks to make judicial processes more efficient, transparent and accessible through the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

Health & Nutrition Platforms

CoWIN

• Launched in January 2021.
• Managed India’s COVID-19 vaccination program for over 220 crore doses, ensuring efficiency and transparency.

eSanjeevani

• Launched in November 2019, eSanjeevani expanded access to healthcare through telemedicine.
• It enables remote doctor to patient consultations, particularly in rural and underserved regions. 
• The platform reduces travel costs and waiting time while extending specialist advice to distant communities. 
• As of 5 March 2026, it has served 45.42 crore patients and onboarded 2.3 lakh healthcare providers.

POSHAN Tracker

• The Poshan Tracker was launched on 1 March 2021 by the Ministry of Women and Child Development through the National e Governance Division.
• It serves as a governance tool for nutrition monitoring.
• It leverages technology for dynamic identification of stunting, wasting and underweight prevalence among children. 
• It also enables last mile tracking of nutrition service delivery.
•  As of January 2026, 14.03 lakh Anganwadi Centres were onboard and 8.90 crore eligible beneficiaries were registered on the system, strengthening data driven nutrition interventions.

National Non-Communicable Diseases Platform (NCD)

• The National Non-Communicable Diseases Platform supports screening, diagnosis and management of major lifestyle diseases.
• It facilitates population based screening and long-term disease management. 

eHospital and ORS

• As part of the Digital India initiative, the National Informatics Centre developed eHospital, e-BloodBank and the Online Registration System. 
• The ORS portal provide online access to hospital services. 
• The eHospital application digitises internal workflows, appointments, diagnostics and billing. 
• The e-BloodBank application supports end to end blood bank management. 

Education and Skills Platforms

DIKSHA

• Launched in 2017, DIKSHA is the national platform for school education. 
• It is an initiative of the National Council for Educational Research and Training under the Ministry of Education. 
• A national platform for school education with over 566 crore learning sessions delivered.

Skill India Digital Hub

• Provides online skilling and job-linked training, integrating government skill portals to connect learners with employment opportunities.

Governance and Coordination

e-Office

• Digitises government workflows for faster decision-making and paperless functioning.

API Setu

• It enables secure and standardised sharing of government data and services through application programming interfaces. 

PM GatiShakti

• Launched on 13 October 2021, the PM GatiShakti National Master Plan provides a GIS based digital platform for integrated planning and coordinated implementation of infrastructure projects. 
• It aims to enable multimodal connectivity across economic zones and improve synchronisation among ministries and agencies. 

India’s Digital Public Infrastructure Diplomacy 

Through its DPI diplomacy, India is helping other nations build inclusive, interoperable, and scalable digital infrastructures. India’s approach to DPI diplomacy is guided by its civilisational ethos of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, meaning “the world is one family.” India shares its digital systems and expertise to help other countries build inclusive, reliable, and large-scale digital infrastructure.

Strategic Partnerships

• India has signed memoranda of understanding (MoUs) and agreements with 24 countries to share technical knowledge on India Stack and Digital Public Infrastructure. 
• These partnerships focus on areas such as digital identity, digital payments, data exchange frameworks, and citizen service delivery systems. 
• The goal is not to export a product, but to share architecture and design principles, allowing countries to develop population-scale digital systems adapted to their own contexts. 
• Some of these countries include Armenia, Sierra Leone, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Tanzania, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Brazil, Maldives, Malaysia, and Mongolia.

Cross-Border Expansion of UPI

• India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has gone beyond national borders and is now operational in eight countries, including the UAE, Singapore, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, France, Mauritius, and Qatar.
• UPI simplifies cross-border payments, making international remittances faster, safer, and more accessible. 

India Stack Global

• To facilitate structured cooperation, India created India Stack Global, a platform showcasing India’s DPI solutions and providing technical resources to partner countries. 
• This portal acts as a bridge between India’s experience and the needs of other nations. 
• India presents its digital platforms as adaptable building blocks rather than fixed software, allowing countries to tailor solutions to their own requirements.

G20 Leadership and the Global DPI Repository

• During its G20 Presidency in 2023, India placed DPI at the center of the global development agenda. 
• The G20 New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration recognized DPI as a key accelerator for inclusive growth. 
• India also launched the Global Digital Public Infrastructure Repository, a knowledge platform that shares best practices and lessons learned in designing and deploying DPI at population scale.
• India contributed the largest number of DPI solutions, establishing itself as a global leader in this domain.

Open Digital Public Goods

• India has shared platforms such as CoWIN, the digital backbone for its COVID-19 vaccination program, as open-source software with the world. 
• CoWIN managed over 220 crore vaccine doses, demonstrating India’s ability to coordinate large-scale public health operations.

Sovereign Digital Identity – MOSIP

• India also developed the Modular Open-Source Identity Platform (MOSIP), a framework that helps countries build their own secure and sovereign digital identity systems. 
• Over 25 countries are adopting or exploring MOSIP for national identity programs. 
• This reinforces India’s philosophy of sharing digital expertise while respecting national sovereignty and security.