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 democratise 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
- The Open API team at iSPIRT has been a pro-bono partner in the development, evolution, and evangelisation of these APIs and systems.
What is API?
- 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.
- Their API documentation contains information on how developers are to structure those requests and responses.
Q1) What is Unified Payment Interface?
Unified Payment Interface (UPI) is a real-time payment system introduced by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) in 2016. It is a revolutionary technology that enables instant money transfers between different bank accounts in India.
Source: India-Papua New Guinea sign MoU for India Stack collaboration
Last updated on July, 2026
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