Digital India

DPI Brief — July 09, 2026 L2: RBI Reasserts Crypto Prohibition Stance; Digital Rupee Gets Parliamentary Review The Reserve Bank of India has doubled down on its long-standing opposition to cryptocurrencies, telling a parliamentary panel that India’s crypto policy should “lean towards prohibition” to keep virtual digital assets outside the regulated financial system. Government documents reviewed by Reuters reveal that the central bank’s position remains firmly against legalising crypto as currency. Meanwhile, the Income Tax Department flagged that trading via offshore exchanges is hard to monitor, with estimates suggesting India has nearly 39 million crypto traders holding approximately $2.1 billion in digital assets as of May 2026. ...

DPI Brief — July 08, 2026 1. UPI Expands to Greece, Now Live in 10 Countries [L2 — Payments] India’s Unified Payments Interface has officially launched in Greece, marking its expansion to 10 countries globally. The rollout, enabled through a partnership between Eurobank and NPCI International, allows users of UPI-enabled applications to make digital payments at merchants across Greece. UPI’s international footprint now spans Bhutan, Nepal, UAE, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, France, Peru, Oman, and Greece — a remarkable trajectory from a domestic rail to a global payments standard. UPI in Greece ...

DPI Brief — July 07, 2026 India Widens Platform Accountability Crackdown: Notices to WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal Over Anonymous Messaging Layer: L7 — Trust (CERT-In, MeitY, IT Rules) India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has dramatically expanded its regulatory sweep over encrypted messaging platforms, issuing notices to Telegram and Signal demanding explanations for their phone-number concealment features. This follows MeitY’s earlier action ordering WhatsApp — India’s largest messaging platform with over 500 million users — to halt its planned username feature rollout within three days or face regulatory action. The notices come on the heels of India’s temporary blockade of Telegram last month over leaks of national medical exam papers. The Internet Freedom Foundation has criticised the government’s actions, arguing that the notice to Signal in particular threatens protected speech given its widespread use by journalists and activists. For India’s DPI trust layer, this marks an aggressive interpretation of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, signalling that platform-level anonymity features are now squarely in MeitY’s crosshairs. The regulatory posture raises important questions about the balance between traceability mandates and end-to-end encryption guarantees. ...

DPI Brief — July 06, 2026 NPCI Partners HSBC and J.P. Morgan for Real-Time Forex on International UPI Layer: L2 — Payments (UPI, NPCI) The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on July 1 announced separate strategic partnerships with HSBC India and J.P. Morgan Payments to simplify international UPI transactions for Indian travellers abroad. The collaborations introduce real-time foreign exchange (FX) conversion and settlement, allowing users to see the exact rupee amount before confirming a payment — eliminating the opacity that has long plagued cross-border card transactions. This is a significant infrastructural upgrade: rather than routing international UPI payments through multi-day settlement cycles, the new partnerships enable near-instant FX conversion at the point of sale. For India’s payments stack, this moves UPI closer to being a truly global-ready rail, complementing the existing linkages with countries like UAE, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. The partnerships also signal deepening institutional confidence in UPI as a cross-border instrument from two of the world’s largest banks. ...

DPI Brief — July 05, 2026 1. NPCI Teams Up with HSBC & JP Morgan to Simplify International UPI Payments [L2 — Payments] The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on July 1 signed separate partnerships with HSBC India and J.P. Morgan Payments to make international UPI payments smoother and more transparent. The collaborations introduce real-time foreign exchange (FX) conversion and settlement for international transactions, allowing Indian travellers to see the exact amount in rupees before making a UPI payment abroad. This is a significant step toward reducing friction in cross-border retail payments and strengthening the global interoperability of UPI rails. With these partnerships, NPCI is layering institutional-grade FX infrastructure on top of the UPI network, moving beyond bilateral linkages to a more scalable model for international expansion. ...

DPI Brief — July 04, 2026 1. CERT-In Probes Tata Electronics Breach Exposing iPhone 18 Pro Data [L7 – Trust/Cybersecurity] India’s Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) made its first public comments on a major data breach at Tata Electronics — Apple’s contract manufacturer in Hosur, Tamil Nadu. IT Secretary S. Krishnan confirmed that CERT-In has been formally notified and is investigating the incident. A ransomware group dubbed “World Leaks” claims to have stolen 630 GB of confidential data, including iPhone 18 Pro component lists, supplier assignments, and motherboard blueprints, which have surfaced on the dark web. The breach also reportedly contained documents from Tesla, Qualcomm, and TSMC. ...

DPI Brief — July 03, 2026 Digital India Turns 11 — A Ecosystem Maturity Report Card On July 1, the Digital India programme completed 11 years since its 2015 launch. The Press Information Bureau released a comprehensive stocktake: Aadhaar has issued over 1.4 billion IDs, UPI processes 757 million daily transactions averaging ₹28 lakh crore monthly, DigiLocker holds over 6 billion documents, GeM has facilitated ₹3+ lakh crore in government procurement, and eSanjeevani has delivered over 300 million teleconsultations. The programme’s digital economy contribution is now estimated at 12-14% of GDP. The milestone underscores how India’s seven-layer DPI stack — identity, payments, documents, commerce, sectoral platforms, governance, and trust infrastructure — has moved from rollout to maturity. ...

DPI Brief — July 02, 2026 Digital India Completes 11 Years; PIB Releases Comprehensive Status Report The Digital India Programme marked its 11th anniversary on July 1, 2026, with the Press Information Bureau releasing a detailed status report documenting the programme’s evolution from an internet connectivity initiative into the world’s largest Digital Public Infrastructure ecosystem. The report highlights that platforms including Aadhaar, UPI, DigiLocker, CoWIN, GeM, and eSanjeevani have become global models for citizen-centric digital service delivery. According to the PIB, ONDC — the Open Network for Digital Commerce — has scaled to over 20 crore buyers and 5 lakh sellers across 1,000 cities, processing approximately 90 lakh transactions monthly as of June 2026. The 11-year milestone underscores how Digital India has moved from connectivity to governance, commerce, and public service transformation. ...

DPI Brief — July 01, 2026 India’s Digital Public Infrastructure ecosystem had a landmark day. As Digital India completes 11 years on July 1, UPI went live in Greece, PM Modi signed a UPI MoU with Seychelles, and the nation’s digital governance stack crossed new thresholds. Here are the five most significant updates. UPI Goes Live in Greece, International Footprint Reaches 10 Countries [L2: Payments] India’s Unified Payments Interface was formally launched in Greece on June 30 through a partnership between Eurobank and NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL). Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal witnessed a live demonstration of real-time cross-border UPI payments at Eurobank headquarters in Athens. The service enables Indian travellers and businesses to make instant digital payments in Greece, with Eurobank positioning itself as a gateway connecting India and Europe. Greece becomes the tenth country to accept UPI, joining Singapore, the UAE, France, Mauritius, Nepal, Bhutan, Qatar, Sri Lanka, and Cambodia. The Eurobank collaboration also strengthens the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) by enabling seamless digital payment connectivity. ...

DPI Brief — June 30, 2026 mAadhaar Retires, UIDAI Launches New Aadhaar App (L1 — Identity) The mAadhaar app was officially retired on June 30, 2026, marking the end of an era for the original Aadhaar mobile application. UIDAI has replaced it with a new Aadhaar App available at pehchaan.uidai.gov.in, featuring QR-based Aadhaar sharing, faster access to services, and improved privacy controls. The transition aligns with UIDAI’s broader push to modernise identity infrastructure ahead of the Digital India programme’s 11th anniversary. Starting July 1, UIDAI will also offer free email ID updates via the new app through December 2026. ...