For much of the 20th century, soft power came from cultural exports—cinema, literature, universities, diplomacy. In the 21st, a new dimension has emerged: digital infrastructure. Today, India’s rising global stature isn’t just about economics (5th largest economy in the world) or geopolitics (a regional counterweight to China, a key voice in forums like the G20 and Global South dialogues)—it’s also about code, protocols, and systems that serve society at scale.
At the heart of this shift is Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI)—interoperable, inclusive digital systems such as Aadhaar (digital identity), UPI (real-time payments), DigiLocker (digital credentials), ONDC (open commerce), and the Beckn Protocol (decentralized service discovery).
Originally built to serve a diverse and complex domestic population, these systems are now reshaping India’s global image—from that of a back office to that of a builder of digital public goods.
A Third Way: Openness by Design
The global digital landscape is dominated by two extremes:
- Western Big Tech platforms that are proprietary, extractive, and profit-driven.
- State-centric models (e.g., China) that centralize control and often compromise privacy.
India’s DPI model offers a third way—open, federated, user-consented, and scalable. It demonstrates that digital infrastructure can be:
- Built as a public good
- Governed with transparency, and
- Designed for inclusion, not domination.
This values-based architecture appeals to countries—developed and developing alike—seeking to build digital sovereignty and trust without having to start from scratch.
From Implementer to Ideator: India’s Global DPI Influence
India has long been known for its software talent and IT services exports. But in the age of DPI, India is no longer just executing others’ ideas—it’s generating its own.
Through initiatives like Beckn and ONDC, India is contributing novel architectural thinking to global digital transformation efforts. India’s influence is especially evident in the Global South, where it is facilitating foundational DPI building blocks in partner countries:
- Identity systems: India supports countries like Philippines, Morocco, and Ethiopia through MOSIP, an open-source digital identity platform inspired by Aadhaar, enabling millions to access public services securely.
- Payment systems: NPCI International is helping countries such as Namibia, Peru, and Rwanda adopt real-time payment systems modelled on UPI, promoting financial inclusion and reducing reliance on cash.
Not only in the Global South, these ideas are catching on in Europe and other other advanced economies, and have become an integral part of global development dialogues in agencies like the UNDP and G20:
- In Germany, the government-backed Manufacturing-X initiative is exploring Beckn-style interoperability in industrial supply chains.
- In France, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, mobility and logistics ecosystems are piloting Beckn-based frameworks to move away from platform monopolies.
- Global initiatives such as the Digital Public Infrastructure Alliance, launched during India’s G20 presidency, include a growing number of developed economies as active participants.
This reflects a deeper shift: India is becoming a contributor to the world’s digital operating system, not just a service provider.
DPI as a New Form of Digital Diplomacy
India’s DPI is not proprietary—it’s built on open standards and protocols, often released as open source and shared freely. This has enabled countries from Sri Lanka to the Philippines, Ethiopia to Morocco, to build their own digital identity systems using platforms like MOSIP (Modular Open Source Identity Platform).
This cooperative approach positions India as:
- A trusted digital partner, offering alternatives to Big Tech or surveillance-heavy digital models.
- A proponent of digital sovereignty, giving nations the tools to build and govern their own systems.
- A champion of equitable digital transformation, where public infrastructure enables private innovation.
This is soft power that builds credibility, capability, and community.
Leapfrogging Development: DPI as a Strategic Accelerator
India’s DPI has not only accelerated service delivery and inclusion—it is now seen as a key pillar in India’s journey toward becoming a $5 trillion economy. Studies estimate that DPI could contribute an additional 0.9% to 1.1% of India’s GDP annually over the next 5–7 years, by boosting productivity, formalizing economic activity, and driving innovation at scale.
The transformative impact of DPI can be seen across sectors:
- Financial inclusion: The India Stack approach, combining digital ID, interoperable payments, a digital credentials ledger, and account aggregation leapfrogged India’s financial inclusion rate to 80% in 6 years —a feat that would have taken nearly five decades without a DPI approach (World Bank).
- Health services: Health Services: India’s CoWIN platform created an organized, real-time system to manage vaccine tracking and citizen access. Its integration with Aadhaar for identity verification, state and private health systems for logistics, and mobile networks for communication enabled India to deliver and track over one billion vaccine doses in just nine months — including a peak of 25 million doses administered in a single day.
- Digital governance: Platforms such as DigiLocker and eKYC have revolutionized public service delivery by reducing paperwork, fraud, and administrative friction. DigiLocker, a secure digital repository for official documents, has facilitated the issuance of over 9.4 billion documents to approximately 434 million users as of December 2024. eKYC uses Aadhaar-based biometric authentication to verify identities instantly, accelerating onboarding across essential services like banking, telecom, and financial services. According to the Economic Survey 2024, the cost of conducting eKYC has fallen dramatically— from around ₹1,000 (approx. $12) to less than ₹6 (6 cents)—thanks to Aadhaar’s integration.
- Welfare delivery: Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT), powered by Aadhaar and digital banking, eliminated intermediaries and leakages across welfare schemes—delivering benefits to over 1.7 billion accounts and saving the government an estimated ₹3.48 lakh crore (~$42 billion) in misdirected subsidies and fraud.
- Tax compliance: DPI has also strengthened tax compliance indirectly—by expanding digital payments, formalizing transactions, and reducing identity fraud. As more of the economy becomes digitally traceable, avenues for tax evasion and underreporting have narrowed, contributing to a broader and more transparent tax base (IFC).
Crucially, India’s challenges—such as financial exclusion, subsidy leakage, and informal economies—mirror those of many developing countries. By successfully tackling these issues through DPI, India is offering a credible model that others are watching closely. This growing relevance and legitimacy gives India not just influence, but authority in shaping global digital transformation narratives.
Digital Infrastructure as State Capacity
India’s DPI movement is more than a technical achievement—it’s a political and philosophical statement : that digital infrastructure can be open, ethical, and empowering. India’s global influence today flows through APIs as much as ambassadors and DPI is becoming a tool of:
- Global norm-shaping (e.g., digital identity and consent)
- Bilateral cooperation (e.g., technical assistance to partner countries)
- And collective innovation, through global working groups and standards bodies
Many countries across Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America now view India’s DPI journey not as an outlier, but as a playbook. This shifts the global gaze—from traditional role models in the West to an emerging one in the Global South.
In doing so, India earns soft power not through dominance, but through relevance.
SANDEEP MAHAJAN 
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