From Digital Public Infrastructure to Intelligent Finance: What the World Can Learn from India

Sameer Harischandra Gaikwad; Nivedita Sudhir Chaskar

doi:10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i05.88093

From Digital Public Infrastructure to Intelligent Finance: What the World Can Learn from India

Author(s)	Mr. Sameer Harischandra Gaikwad, Mrs Nivedita Sudhir Chaskar
Country	India
Abstract	India has built the world's largest population-scale digital public infrastructure for finance, and is now layering artificial intelligence onto it. This paper examines that transition and asks which parts of the Indian experience are transferable to other jurisdictions. Six potential failure modes accompany India: authentication exclusion, predatory digital lending, fraud. In the paper, the Indian stack is mapped across three layers of consumer identity, payments and consented data, and in parallel it is shown how a fourth layer of standardised credit origination and machine-learning underwriting emerged. Key findings include that the Indian payment layer reached 241.6 billion transactions in the financial year ended March 2026, but so-called 'last-mile' infrastructure problems mean the rate of year-on-year growth has decelerated from 82 per cent to 30 per cent in the previous four years. The third, consent layer has enabled more than 3.82 trillion rupees ($44.95 trillion) of credit and, by September 2026, had already surpassed 500 million fulfilled consent requests. The paper shows that the decisive variable was architectural, not technological and the state has supplied thin, open, interoperable protocols, leaving product competition to market forces. Four potential failure modes – authentication exclusion, predatory digital lending, transaction fraud enabled by lowfriction onboarding and concentration at the application layer – are also identified. Six design principles are identified which are transferable to other jurisdictions and which policymakers can use to manoeuvre around scale economics and specific institutional forms. The paper ends by providing a ten-point sequencing framework for policymakers.
Keywords	Digital Public Infrastructure, Financial Inclusion, Unified Payments Interface, Account Aggregator, Artificial Intelligence In Credit, Open Finance, Regulatory Technology, India Stack
Field	Business Administration
Published In	Volume 8, Issue 5, September-October 2026
Published On	2026-09-20
DOI	https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i05.88093

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From Digital Public Infrastructure to Intelligent Finance: What the World Can Learn from India

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