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........

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