Deep Dive

DPI Deep Dive — Friday | August 14, 2026 Layer 5: Sectoral Infrastructure — ABHA, AgriStack, eCourts India’s sectoral Digital Public Infrastructure is having a blockbuster week. Three parallel systems — health IDs, farmer registries, and digital courts — are scaling at a pace that few predicted even 18 months ago. This deep dive examines the most significant developments across ABHA, AgriStack, and eCourts from August 7–14, 2026. 1. ABHA Crosses 96 Crore: India’s Health ID Enters the Real Economy On August 13, the government released fresh data on the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) that puts ABHA — the 14-digit health identity number — at 96.43 crore registrations as of August 12, 2026. That is not the headline number, though. What matters more is the 110 crore health records now linked to ABHA, alongside 5.47 lakh registered health facilities and 10.50 lakh healthcare professionals on the platform. 1 ...

DPI Deep Dive — Wednesday | August 12, 2026 Wednesday marks L3: Documents & Data Exchange in our seven-layer DPI rotation — the layer that powers DigiLocker, API Setu, eSign, and the entire digital document infrastructure that sits between identity (L1) and payments (L2). This week, L3 delivered one of the most significant cross-border DPI expansions in recent memory: DigiLocker going global for international student verification. 1. DigiLocker Goes Global: AAERI Verify Launches for Australian University Admissions The single biggest L3 story this week is the launch of AAERI Verify — a digital platform that integrates DigiLocker to enable instant, source-verified document checks for Indian students applying to Australian universities. Unveiled on August 7 at the AAERI Annual Convention in New Delhi, the platform is a collaboration between the National e-Governance Division (NeGD) under MeitY and the Association of Australian Education Representatives in India (AAERI). ...

DPI Deep Dive — Tuesday | August 11, 2026 L2 — Payments & Financial Rails (NPCI, UPI, RuPay) 1. The Great UPI MDR Debate: Parliament Opens the Door to Merchant Fees The single biggest story in India’s payments ecosystem this week is the Taxation and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026, which the Lok Sabha passed on August 6. The bill amends Section 10A of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 — removing the legal provision that prevented banks and payment service providers from charging a Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on UPI transactions. ...

DPI Deep Dive — Monday | August 10, 2026 India’s identity infrastructure had a turbulent week. From a multi-district Aadhaar fraud racket busted in Uttar Pradesh to NPCI’s new OTP mandate for high-value AePS withdrawals, and the Lok Sabha opening the door to UPI merchant fees — the L1 Identity & Authentication layer saw developments that cut across security, policy, and the economics of digital ID itself. Here are the five stories that mattered. ...

DPI Deep Dive — Sunday | August 09, 2026 Layer L7: Security, Privacy & Trust — CERT-In, DPDP Act, TRAI, I4C, and the institutional framework safeguarding India’s digital public infrastructure. 1. e-Zero FIR Goes National: PRAGATI 52 Orders All-State Rollout After Digital Arrest Scams The 52nd PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation) meeting, chaired by the Prime Minister on June 24, delivered the most consequential cybersecurity-governance directive of 2026: all state governments must immediately implement the e-Zero FIR system developed by the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C). ...

DPI Deep Dive — Saturday | August 08, 2026 India’s governance and grievance redressal infrastructure — Layer 6 of the DPI stack — had a significant week. From parliamentary disclosures on CPGRAMS scaling to 15.2 lakh grievances in under seven months, to the 50th edition of the monthly report marking a milestone in data-driven accountability, to state-level AI integration in the Northeast, the governance layer is quietly becoming the most operationally mature piece of India Stack. ...

DPI Deep Dive — Friday | August 07, 2026 L5: Sectoral Infrastructure — ABHA, AgriStack, eCourts This week’s Sectoral Infrastructure layer saw decisive action on three fronts: AgriStack’s Digital Crop Survey preparations intensified across multiple states, eCourts Phase III pushed deeper into paperless court operations with new digitisation mandates, and ABHA crossed the 94-crore mark even as the utilisation gap in digital health records widened. 1. Odisha AgriStack SLSC: 20.75 Lakh Farmers Registered, Kharif Digital Crop Survey from August 16 The 8th State Level Steering Committee (SLSC) of AgriStack-Odisha, chaired by Chief Secretary Anu Garg on August 4, reviewed accelerating farmer registration and finalised preparations for the Kharif 2026 Digital Crop Survey (DCS).12 ...

DPI Deep Dive — Thursday | August 06, 2026 Layer L4: Commerce & Logistics — ONDC, GeM, and India’s open commerce infrastructure. This week, India’s commerce-layer DPI hit a remarkable inflection point. Flipkart’s announcement of an ONDC-powered food delivery assault on Bengaluru, GeM’s Womaniya milestone crossing ₹99K crore in women-led procurement, and ONDC’s quiet passage of 500 million cumulative transactions together signal that the open-commerce architecture is no longer experimental — it is becoming structural. ...

DPI Deep Dive — Tuesday | August 04, 2026 Layer: L2 — Payments & Financial Rails (NPCI, UPI, RuPay) 1. UPI Smashes All-Time Records: 23.66 Billion Transactions in July UPI delivered yet another record-breaking month in July 2026, processing 23.66 billion transactions worth ₹29.88 lakh crore — the highest monthly volume ever recorded on the platform. Volume grew 4.1% month-on-month from June’s 22.72 billion, while value rose 3.3% from ₹28.92 lakh crore. Year-on-year, volumes surged 22% and values climbed 19%. ...

DPI Deep Dive — L1 Identity & Authentication | August 03, 2026 Theme: L1 — Identity & Authentication (UIDAI, Aadhaar, eKYC) 1. LPG Aadhaar e-KYC Deadline Looms: 33 Crore Consumers, Two Weeks Left Oil marketing companies (IOCL, BPCL, HPCL) have begun sending final reminders to LPG consumers to complete Aadhaar-based biometric e-KYC by August 16, 2026, or risk losing access to subsidised domestic cylinders. Those who fail to comply will be shifted to commercial rates — a jump from roughly ₹800 to ₹2,385 per cylinder. ...