Digital India

DPI Brief — August 31, 2026 One Nation, One Time: IST Becomes Sole Legal Time Reference Layer: L7 (Trust / Governance Infrastructure) The Department of Consumer Affairs has notified the Legal Metrology (Indian Standard Time) Rules, 2026, establishing Indian Standard Time (IST) as the mandatory, sole reference for all legal, commercial, administrative, and digital operations across the country. Issued on 27 August under Section 52 of the Legal Metrology Act, 2009, the rules carry a 180-day compliance window. ...

DPI Brief — August 30, 2026 TRAI: India’s Telecom Base Crosses 1.354 Billion, Broadband Hits 1.09 Billion Layer: L7 — Trust (TRAI) TRAI’s monthly subscription data for July 2026, released on August 28, shows India’s total telephone subscriber base reaching 1,354.28 million — a monthly addition of 6.20 million users. Broadband subscriptions crossed the 1.09 billion milestone, growing from 1,087.50 million in June to 1,094.48 million in July (0.64% month-on-month). ...

DPI Brief — August 29, 2026 L1: Digital India Completes 11 Years; e-Shram Portal Turns Five Prime Minister Narendra Modi marked 11 years of the Digital India programme on August 28, describing it as the cornerstone of a “developed India” — a digital governance framework that has evolved from connectivity rollout to a layered DPI stack. The anniversary coincided with a structurally significant milestone: the e-Shram portal completed five years on August 26. Built by the National Informatics Centre, e-Shram is India’s first Aadhaar-authenticated National Database of Unorganised Workers. It assigns every registered worker a 12-digit Universal Account Number (UAN), layering L1 identity infrastructure directly onto social security delivery. The platform covers agricultural labourers, construction workers, domestic workers, gig workers, and street vendors — enabling welfare-scheme convergence and benefit portability across states. Five years in, it underscores how Aadhaar authentication has moved beyond simple KYC into programme administration for India’s vast informal economy. ...

DPI Brief — August 28, 2026 UPI Turns 10: Payment Aggregators Demand Seat at the MDR Table Layer: L2 — Payments UPI completed a decade on August 25, and the anniversary arrived with fresh friction over how the upcoming merchant discount rate pie will be sliced. Payment aggregators (PAs) including Razorpay, PayU, and PhonePe are pushing for a fixed, direct share of UPI MDR — bypassing the sponsor banks that currently intermediate their fee flow. The demand, reported by Business Standard on August 27, is likely to meet resistance: PAs are not direct members of the NPCI-run UPI network and sit outside the formal fee-splitting structure that names only issuing banks, acquiring banks, and PSP banks. ...

DPI Brief — August 27, 2026 TRAI Weighs Callback Functionality on 1600-Series Numbers (L7 — Trust/Regulation) TRAI is actively discussing a proposal with telecom operators to enable callback functionality on 1600-series numbers — the number range used by banks, insurers, and financial institutions for transactional alerts and service calls. Currently, customers cannot call back these numbers, forcing them to navigate IVR menus or visit branches to respond to alerts about fraud, loan approvals, or account issues. ...

DPI Brief — August 26, 2026 UPI turned ten yesterday. On August 25, 2016, the National Payments Corporation of India flipped the switch on what would become the world’s largest real-time payment system. A decade later, the numbers are staggering: from 21 banks at launch to 741 live banks as of July 2026, from 1.78 crore annual transactions in FY2016-17 to 24,162 crore in FY2025-26 — a nearly 13,000-fold explosion. July 2026 alone clocked 2,366 crore transactions worth ₹29.88 lakh crore, both monthly records. UPI now accounts for 84% of India’s digital payments by volume and runs in 11 countries. Prime Minister Modi called it a “major turning point in India’s digital payment journey.” The system processes an average of 66 crore transactions daily. From a technical fix for IMPS to a sovereign payment rail, UPI’s trajectory is the single most important DPI scaling story globally. ...

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 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 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 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 ...