How India Is Exporting Its Digital Model
India's Digital Public Infrastructure — built domestically over the past fifteen years — has become a diplomatic asset as well as a governance achievement. During its G20 presidency in 2023, India elevated DPI as a global development agenda item, producing the G20 DPI Framework that was adopted by all 20 member nations; the framework articulated India's "open, interoperable, secure, and inclusive" DPI principles as a global standard.
NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) — established as the international commercial arm of NPCI — has signed agreements with dozens of countries to extend UPI and RuPay internationally or assist countries in building their own UPI-equivalent systems.
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| Representational Visualisation: How India Is Exporting Its Digital Model |
India's DPI diplomacy operates at multiple levels. At the bilateral level, NIPL exports specific product (UPI international payments, RuPay card acceptance); at the technical assistance level, India shares open-source code and implementation knowledge for countries building their own DPI; and at the governance level, India advocates at the UN, GPAI, ITU, and G20 for DPI principles and a "whole-of-government" DPI approach as the development framework for digital governance in the Global South.
This
multilevel diplomacy positions India as an alternative technology governance
model to both US big-tech platform dominance and Chinese state-controlled
digital infrastructure — a positioning India has explicitly cultivated in its
pitch to developing countries.
What You Need to Know
- G20
DPI Framework (2023): adopted by all G20 members during India's
presidency; articulates principles for DPI-based development; establishes
G20's endorsement of India's DPI model as a global template; India
co-chairs the Global Partnership on Financial Inclusion (GPFI) which
implements DPI-for-inclusion recommendations.
- NIPL
international expansion: UPI live in Singapore, UAE, UK, France, Nepal,
Bhutan, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Trinidad & Tobago, and other countries;
RuPay card accepted in 200+ countries; bilateral agreements with ministry
of digital transformation (Trinidad & Tobago, September 2024); NIPL
provides technology licensing, consulting, and infrastructure provision.
- India
chaired GPAI (Global Partnership on AI) in 2024: 29-country partnership
for responsible AI; India's chairing reflected its growing global position
in AI governance discussions alongside its DPI diplomacy.
- Open
source DPI sharing: IndiaAI Mission's IndiaAI Dataset Platform aims to
provide access to high-quality Indian datasets; India has offered
open-source versions of DPI components to developing countries through
bilateral MOUs; the concept of "DPI-as-global-public-good" is
India's framing.
- UN
UNCTAD report on DPI (2023): featured India's India Stack as the primary
example of successful DPI; the World Bank's ID4D (Identification for
Development) initiative uses Aadhaar as a reference model; the Gates
Foundation funds DPI adoption in Africa using India's model.
How It Works in Practice
1. UPI as international payments infrastructure:
Indian diaspora populations (18 million people, $111 billion in remittances in
2022) in the Gulf, US, UK, and Southeast Asia benefit from UPI's international
expansion; a UAE resident can send money to an Indian bank account via UPI
without SWIFT fees or intermediary delays. This diaspora utility is the most
commercially motivated driver of UPI internationalisation; it also demonstrates
UPI's real-world value to host country regulators.
2. Technical assistance model: India provides
technical assistance through NIPL consulting, NPCI's knowledge-sharing
programmes, and MeitY's bilateral cooperation agreements; the approach is to
provide technical knowledge and code rather than deploying Indian technology
companies as operators, preserving host country digital sovereignty while
enabling DPI adoption. This approach contrasts with China's Belt and Road
digital infrastructure model where Chinese state companies build and operate
foreign digital infrastructure.
3. The India Stack Global initiative: India Stack
Global — a government-backed initiative to promote India's DPI internationally
— offers open-source access to India Stack components and provides
implementation guidance; countries including Ethiopia, Mozambique, Morocco, and
Philippines are exploring or implementing India Stack-inspired systems.
4. Competing models: India vs China vs US big tech:
India's DPI diplomacy explicitly positions its model against two alternatives:
US big-tech platform dominance (Facebook's internet.org/Free Basics, Google's
Next Billion Users) which extends private platform reach in developing
countries; and China's Digital Silk Road (Huawei, Alibaba, WeChat
infrastructure) which creates technological dependencies on Chinese
state-adjacent companies. India's "open interoperable public good"
framing is designed to appeal to developing countries seeking digital
sovereignty.
5. The limitations of DPI export: India's DPI success
depended on preconditions — a government-backed biometric ID, cheap mobile
data, banking infrastructure, and a sufficient private sector ecosystem — that
many developing countries lack; the most successful DPI exports are likely to be
in countries with similar preconditions (large populations, growing mobile
penetration, government commitment), not universal adoption.
What People Often Misunderstand
- UPI
international payments are not available to all 18 million NRIs: UPI
international is available in specific countries through specific
partnerships; many Indian diaspora communities cannot yet use UPI for
India remittances; the expansion is ongoing and real but incomplete.
- DPI
export is both altruistic and strategic: India genuinely believes DPI
is a better development model for the Global South than alternatives; it
also benefits strategically from establishing India's technology
governance norms as global standards and from commercial opportunities for
Indian fintech companies in exported markets.
- Open-source
DPI code is not sufficient without governance capacity: Countries that
adopt India Stack code without the institutional infrastructure
(UIDAI-equivalent body, NPCI-equivalent payment authority, strong banking
system) cannot replicate India's outcomes; technical code is necessary but
insufficient.
- Some
DPI exports face data sovereignty concerns: Countries receiving
India's DPI assistance have raised concerns about data sharing
implications and dependency on Indian technical support; the
sovereignty-preserving aspects of India's model (open source, technical
consulting rather than operational control) address these concerns but
don't eliminate them.
- India's
G20 DPI agenda was as much about global influence as development:
India's 2023 G20 presidency DPI agenda served India's interest in
establishing its technology governance norms internationally; the
development framing is genuine but the geopolitical positioning of India
as a technology standard-setter is equally important.
What Changes Over Time
The Alliance for Digital Public Infrastructure — a proposed
multilateral body to provide technical assistance for DPI adoption globally —
has been in formation since India's G20 presidency; if institutionalised, it
will provide a permanent multilateral vehicle for India's DPI diplomacy.
India's participation in the GPAI (chairing in 2024) is expected to continue
through 2026–27, sustaining India's presence in global AI governance
discussions.
Sources and Further Reading
- Institut
Montaigne — India DPI: https://www.institutmontaigne.org/en/expressions/indias-digital-public-infrastructure-success-story-world
- NeGD
— India Stack: https://negd.gov.in/blog/india-stack-indias-digital-journey-towards-inclusive-growth/
- Drishti
IAS — 10 Years Digital India: https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/10-years-of-digital-india
- PSA — AI initiatives: https://www.psa.gov.in/ai-mission-initiatives
- Insightsonindia — 10 Years Digital India: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2025/07/02/10-years-of-the-digital-india-initiative/