India is formalising its digital public infrastructure, including platforms like Aadhaar and UPI, into a diplomatic asset by signing cooperation agreements with 23 countries, signalling a shift from domestic use to international influence, especially across the Global South.
India is turning the digital systems it built at home into a form of overseas influence. In February 2026, just ahead of New Delhi’s AI Impact Summit, the government signed digital public infrastructure cooperation agreements with 23 countries, according to official releases and industry summaries. The move shows how India is using the tools behind its public digital architecture not just for domestic administration, but as part of a wider diplomatic pitch to partners in Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and beyond.
At the centre of that pitch is India Stack, the umbrella term for a set of platforms that includes digital identity, payments, document storage, service delivery and data exchange. The system now covers widely used services such as Aadhaar, the biometric identity platform, DigiLocker for official documents and the Unified Payments Interface, better known as UPI, which has already gone live in more than eight countries including the UAE, Singapore, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, France, Mauritius and Qatar, according to government-backed summaries. India also has a separate India Stack Global initiative and the Global DPI Repository, both meant to make it easier for other governments to adopt parts of the model.
That matters because digital infrastructure has become strategic. Countries building online public services want systems that are interoperable, scalable and less dependent on foreign tech giants. India’s offer is appealing for that reason, especially across the Global South, where governments are often looking for cheaper ways to expand digital identity, payments and welfare delivery without giving up too much control over their own data. The East Asia Forum article argues that this is where India’s influence starts to look less like hard power and more like infrastructural soft power: a policy export rather than a coercive model.
The AI angle is what makes this feel current rather than merely retrospective. The East Asia Forum piece says India is already thinking about how DPI and artificial intelligence can be combined to improve access and reduce language barriers, with the government’s AI governance guidelines pointing towards multilingual tools such as Bhashini. For readers, the practical significance is simple enough: the same rails that help a person receive benefits or pay a bill on a phone could also support AI services that are more local, more usable and easier to embed in public administration.
But the export story comes with caveats. The East Asia Forum analysis notes that India’s own experience shows how useful digital systems can also raise hard questions about privacy, surveillance and the handling of biometric data. It points to India’s long path from Aadhaar to the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023, while warning that copying DPI into other countries without local safeguards could create problems that are harder to fix later. That tension is likely to shape the next phase of India’s digital diplomacy: the country is no longer only selling a technology stack, but also asking others to trust its approach to governance.
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