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DPI Deep Dive — Monday | August 25, 2026 This week on the Identity & Authentication layer, India’s biometric ID infrastructure hit a critical inflection point. Three major developments between August 18–25 signal that Aadhaar is no longer just a welfare-delivery instrument — it is becoming the mandatory gateway to everyday services, from cooking gas to mobile connectivity. The expansion is rapid, and the privacy questions are mounting. 1. DoT Makes Biometric Verification Mandatory for All SIM Cards The single biggest identity-story this week. On August 21, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) notified the Telecommunications (User Identification) Rules, 2026 (G.S.R. 750(E)), making live biometric verification — face, fingerprint, or iris — compulsory for obtaining a new SIM, replacing one, updating subscriber details, or even surrendering a connection. The rules took effect the same day. ...

DPI Brief — August 25, 2026 DoT Makes Biometric Verification Mandatory for All SIM Cards — Aadhaar eKYC Forced for Holders Layer: L1 (Identity) + L7 (Trust) The Department of Telecommunications on August 21 notified the Telecommunications (User Identification) Rules, 2026 (G.S.R. 750(E)), making live biometric verification — face, fingerprint, or iris — mandatory not just for new SIMs but for replacements, detail changes, and even SIM surrender. Aadhaar holders have no alternative: they must use Aadhaar e-KYC, with no option for offline or document-based verification. ...

DPI Deep Dive — Monday | August 24, 2026 This week on the Identity & Authentication layer, India’s Aadhaar ecosystem saw three major developments: a nationwide school biometric update drive crossing 2 crore completions, the Aadhaar App hitting 50 million downloads, and an LPG e-KYC deadline that exposed the fragility of tying essential services to Aadhaar authentication infrastructure. 2 Crore School Children Updated, But the Clock is Ticking On August 18, UIDAI announced that its special drive for Mandatory Biometric Updates (MBU) had completed over 2 crore updates for school children across approximately 1.56 lakh schools nationwide. The drive, launched in September 2025, integrates with the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) to track MBU status at the school level — a meaningful piece of cross-layer DPI coordination between L1 (Identity) and L5 (Sectoral Infrastructure, specifically education). ...

DPI Brief — August 24, 2026 UPI MDR Returns: PSS Amendment Act Gets Presidential Assent Layer: Payments (L2) The President has granted assent to the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Act, 2026 and the Payment and Settlement Systems (Amendment) Act, 2026 — the legislative vehicle that removes UPI's zero-MDR protection after nearly six years. Transactions above ₹2,000 will likely attract a 0.3% merchant discount rate, with fees split across issuing banks, acquiring banks, and payment service providers. The government has clarified that consumer-facing person-to-person (P2P) UPI payments remain free. The legal groundwork is now in place for RBI and NPCI to notify the operational framework. The Hans India first reported the MDR comeback details; Moneycontrol notes the fee structure will follow NPCI's existing interchange model for PPI-initiated payments (1.1% for prepaid instruments). ...

DPI Deep Dive — Sunday | August 23, 2026 L7: Security, Privacy & Trust — CERT-In, DPDP, TRAI India’s security and privacy infrastructure had an eventful week. From a state-sponsored zero-day targeting Indian defence firms to a landmark government crackdown on Firebase-hosted phishing infrastructure, and a clarion call in Parliament that 29.4 lakh cybersecurity incidents were tracked in 2025 alone — the trust layer of India’s DPI is under sustained pressure. Here are the five most significant developments. ...

DPI Brief — August 23, 2026 R S Sharma Warns Against UPI MDR: Keep Payments Free R S Sharma, former UIDAI Director General and ex-ONDC Chairman, has made a forceful case for keeping UPI free for both merchants and consumers. Writing in the Indian Express, Sharma warned that introducing a Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on UPI transactions would be deeply regressive — disproportionately hitting small merchants and low-value payments that form the backbone of India’s digital payments revolution. ...

DPI Deep Dive — Saturday | August 22, 2026 Layer L6: Governance & Grievance — DARPG, CPGRAMS, eOffice, and India’s Digital Governance Stack This week on the L6 Governance & Grievance layer saw India aggressively positioning its digital governance platforms as exportable models, upgrading internal grievance infrastructure, and extending governance capacity-building partnerships abroad. Five developments stand out. 1. India Exports CPGRAMS and Samadhan Didi to Malaysia On August 18, the 2nd India–Malaysia Joint Working Group (JWG) on Public Administration and Governance Reforms convened in New Delhi, co-chaired by Puneet Yadav (Additional Secretary, DARPG) and Datuk Dr. Mohd Bakhari bin Ismail (Deputy Director General of Public Service, Malaysia).1 ...

DPI Brief — August 22, 2026 TRAI Signs Cooperation Pact with Singapore’s IMDA; Starlink Reapplies for India Entry L7 — Trust / Telecom Regulation TRAI and Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) exchanged a Letter of Intent on August 21 to deepen cooperation in telecommunications and broadcasting regulation. The LoI, witnessed during the fourth India-Singapore ministerial roundtable in New Delhi, will facilitate knowledge exchange on regulatory experience, quality-of-service frameworks, and emerging areas like satellite spectrum management. 1 ...

DPI Brief — August 21, 2026 PIB Revisits UPI’s Decade of Scale; Zero MDR Stays for Consumers The Press Information Bureau released a comprehensive retrospective on UPI’s ten-year journey, confirming that the platform processed 24,162 crore transactions worth ₹314 lakh crore in FY26 — a 60.9% CAGR from FY21’s 2,233 crore transactions. The data reveals that 86% of Person-to-Merchant (P2M) transactions were below ₹500, underscoring UPI’s deep integration into everyday retail commerce. P2P low-value transfers also continued to expand. Critically, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman reiterated that UPI will remain free for consumers, even as the Payments Council of India and Startup Policy Forum push for a tiered MDR structure — zero for small merchants, 0.3% for large ones (above ₹20 lakh annual turnover). Government incentive outlay for FY27 stands at ₹2,000 crore, which the PCI considers insufficient against the ecosystem’s processing costs. The policy tension between sustainability and inclusion remains unresolved. ...

DPI Deep Dive — L4 Commerce & Logistics | August 20, 2026 India’s L4 Digital Public Infrastructure layer — commerce and logistics — had an eventful week. ONDC landed its most significant funding round yet from an unexpected coalition of investors. GeM entered its tenth year with a regulatory course-correction on consultancy tenders and a new state-level procurement experiment. And Flipkart’s long-anticipated food delivery entry via the ONDC protocol moved closer to reality. Here are the stories that mattered. ...