DPI

DPI Brief — August 09, 2026 India’s Digital Public Infrastructure ecosystem saw significant activity across multiple layers this week — from a landmark Supreme Court hearing on the tension between data protection and transparency laws, to GeM crossing a ₹20 lakh crore procurement milestone on its tenth anniversary. GeM Completes a Decade, Crosses ₹20 Lakh Crore in Cumulative Procurement Layer: L4 — Commerce (GeM) The Government e-Marketplace (GeM) completes ten years of operations on August 9, marking a significant milestone in India’s digital governance journey. As of August 7, the platform has facilitated cumulative procurement worth over ₹20 lakh crore through more than 3.78 crore orders, according to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. ...

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 Brief — August 08, 2026 Lok Sabha Passes Bill Enabling MDR on UPI — L2 Payments The Lok Sabha on August 6 passed the Taxation and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026, amending the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 to empower the Central Government to permit banks and payment service providers to levy charges on UPI and other notified electronic payment modes. The amendment removes the legal restriction on charging Merchant Discount Rate (MDR), a long-standing policy that made UPI effectively free for all parties. ...

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 Brief — August 07, 2026 1. Parliament Passes Bill Amending Payment and Settlement Systems Act — UPI MDR Legal Framework Created (L2: Payments) The Lok Sabha on August 6 passed the Taxation and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026, which amends Section 10A of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007. The amendment removes the legal provision that prevented banks and payment service providers from charging a Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on UPI transactions, creating the legal authority for the government to notify MDR charges in the future. ...

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 Brief — August 06, 2026 Government Moves to Legalise Merchant Fees on High-Value UPI Transactions [L2 — Payments] The Union government tabled the Taxation and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 in Parliament on August 5, proposing amendments to the Payment and Settlement Systems Act that would remove UPI’s blanket statutory exemption from the Merchant Discount Rate (MDR). The Bill itself does not impose charges — it creates the legal framework that would allow the government to notify MDR on specific digital payment modes in the future. ...

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 Brief — August 04, 2026 1. Payments Act Amendment Clears Path for UPI MDR — L2 (Payments) The Finance Ministry has proposed amending the Payment and Settlement Systems Act to scrap the zero-MDR (Merchant Discount Rate) provision that has kept UPI transactions free for merchants since 2020. The proposed amendment shifts the power to notify “fee-protected” payment modes from RBI to the Centre — a move widely seen as a precursor to introducing merchant charges on UPI payments. ...

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. ...