India’s digital public infrastructure is entering a new phase characterised by interconnected systems and AI-driven capabilities, aiming for enhanced governance and inclusive growth across sectors such as health, finance, agriculture, commerce, and education.
India’s digital public infrastructure is moving into a more connected phase, according to a new report from the Centre for Digital Public Goods at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. The study says the country is shifting away from building separate digital systems and towards linking them into networks that can span identity, payments, health care, agriculture, commerce and education. It describes this next stage as “DPI 2.0”, with a longer-term possibility of “DPI 3.0” in which artificial intelligence helps infrastructure anticipate demand and co-ordinate services.
The report, published as the second edition of the State of DPI in India series, was commissioned by Protean eGov Technologies Ltd. It argues that India has already shown it can build digital systems at population scale, but says the bigger challenge now is making those systems work together. That means creating common standards, trusted data exchanges, shared registries and governance arrangements that allow governments, companies and citizens to interact across institutional boundaries.
The IIM Bangalore centre said its work aims to build evidence on India’s evolving digital public infrastructure and contribute to the wider debate on how open, reusable and interoperable systems can support inclusive growth. Protean, which works on e-governance and digital infrastructure projects, said the report captures a broader shift from foundational rails to connected ecosystems that could open the door to new public and private innovation. The centre’s wider mission includes documenting India’s experience so that other countries can learn from it.
The report looks at five sectors to show how that transition is already taking shape. In financial services, it points to the scale made possible by interoperable digital transactions. In health care, it highlights shared registries and consent-based systems. In agriculture, it focuses on efforts to reduce fragmentation between farmers, markets, advisory services and state programmes. Commerce is moving towards linked marketplaces, logistics and procurement systems, while education is developing portable learner identities, digital credentials and continuity across the learning journey.
The authors also warn that artificial intelligence will only add value if it is built on a strong governance framework. They say privacy, accountability, transparency and interoperability need to be embedded into the system if AI is to sit on top of digital public infrastructure safely. In that sense, the report frames India’s next phase not just as a technical upgrade, but as an institutional one: a test of whether digital systems can become smarter without losing trust.
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