DPI Brief — March 12, 2026

Today’s DPI Updates (7 Layers)

L1: Identity & Authentication

No major updates reported in the last 24 hours. UIDAI continues to operate the world’s largest biometric authentication system, facilitating over 100 crore authentications monthly.

L2: Payments & Financial Rails

India’s UPI ecosystem achieved a historic milestone in early March 2026, crossing 800 million transactions in a single day. ¹ February 2026 recorded 20.39 billion transactions, representing a 27% year-over-year increase in volume. The average daily transaction value in February was ₹96,000 crore, with projections targeting ₹1 lakh crore in March. ²

NPCI announced revised fee structures for RuPay Credit Card on UPI transactions, effective April 1, 2026. The changes aim to optimize the TPAP (Third Party Application Provider) fee structure for RuPay credit cards. ³ Meanwhile, NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) is expanding cross-border digital payment acceptance, with discussions ongoing with Malaysia to widen the scope of UPI-powered digital payments. ⁴

L3: Documents & Data Exchange

DigiLocker has reached 676.3 million users (67.63 crore) as of March 2026, cementing its position as one of the world’s largest digital document storage platforms. ⁵ The platform has issued over 9.5 billion authenticated documents, enabling paperless governance and seamless document verification across government services.

L4: Commerce & Logistics

ONDC launched the DigiDukaan initiative in Hyderabad on March 8, 2026, marking a significant step toward enabling digital trade for India’s small retailers. ⁶ The soft launch was attended by Shri Sunil J. Singhi, Chairman, and brought together network participants including Qwipo and Bizom to onboard local businesses onto the ONDC ecosystem. This initiative aims to democratize e-commerce by providing small retailers with digital storefronts and access to broader markets.

The Government of India continues to periodically assess digital adoption among MSMEs across e-commerce platforms, GeM, and ONDC, highlighting the strategic importance of open digital commerce networks. ⁷

L5: Sectoral Infrastructure

The National Medical Commission (NMC) has mandated all medical colleges in India to generate and link Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) IDs for all patients availing services at their attached hospitals. ⁸ This directive covers Outpatient Departments (IPD), Inpatient Departments (IPD), and emergency services, making ABHA linking a prerequisite for healthcare access in medical education institutions.

As of March 2026, over 86.61 crore ABHA accounts have been created, with approximately 90.55 crore health records digitally linked under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM). ⁹ The Aarogya Setu application is being reimagined as a personal health record vault, moving away from its COVID-19 contact tracing origins to become a comprehensive digital health management tool.

L6: Governance & Grievance

No major updates reported in the last 24 hours. The CPGRAMS and eOffice platforms continue to facilitate digital governance and citizen grievance redressal across government departments.

L7: Security, Privacy & Trust

CERT-In issued comprehensive cybersecurity guidelines for India’s space sector on February 26, 2026. ¹⁰ The guidelines mandate satellite operators, ground stations, and equipment manufacturers to report cybersecurity incidents within six hours—a requirement enforceable under Section 70B of the IT Act 2000. The framework also requires annual security audits and specifies reportable incidents including unauthorized access to satellite control systems, signal jamming or spoofing, ground station compromises, data breaches, and malware attacks affecting satellite operations.

Sources