The India Stack as a Potential Gateway to Global Economic Integration

Introduction From a small shop tucked away somewhere in the western part of Delhi, Jasmeen Kaur skyrocketed to internet stardom with her “Just looking like a wow!” Instagram reels. The endearing videos of Jasmeen showcasing her latest sarees and suits to potential clients even caught the attention of Bollywood stars and their hundreds of millions of followers. As a woman entrepreneur in India, Jasmeen was riding the wave of India’s economic growth and using the tools at her disposal to beat the competition. Yet, for women like her, it is not just the power of digital marketing that is reshaping their business potential, but India’s revolutionary approach to Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) known as the ‘India Stack’. The India Stack is a set of digital public infrastructure components that comprise three pillars: digital identification; payments; and data management. India’s approach to digitalisation has fundamentally changed lives, giving biometric identification to those previously not identifiable, banking the unbanked, and giving people control and privacy in managing their own data. [i] For women like Jasmeen, the ubiquity of the Stack means she can receive payments from consumers, share legal documents with her bank or lawyer, pay her suppliers, receive loans or investments, and coordinate delivery payments through the fast, easy, and cheap technology.