India's economic growth story in this decade cannot be told without a chapter on Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) - the open, interoperable digital systems that have quietly rewired how businesses transact, verify, borrow, sell, and scale. For PHDCCI and the wider industry ecosystem it represents - MSMEs, startups, exporters, and large enterprises alike - DPI has moved from being a government-led digital governance experiment to becoming the backbone of business growth in India. What began with Aadhaar and UPI has evolved into a full-fledged "India Stack" of identity, payments, data-sharing, and commerce protocols that is now central to industry competitiveness, financial inclusion, and India's ambition of becoming a USD 5-trillion-plus economy.
This article examines what Digital Public Infrastructure means for business growth, the measurable impact it has already delivered, and why PHDCCI believes trade bodies, industry associations, and enterprises must actively engage with this infrastructure to unlock the next phase of expansion.
What Is Digital Public Infrastructure - And Why Should Business Leaders Care?
Digital Public Infrastructure refers to interoperable, population-scale digital systems - built as public goods - that enable identity verification, digital payments, and secure data exchange across sectors and platforms. Unlike proprietary corporate technology, DPI is designed on open standards so that banks, fintechs, e-commerce platforms, logistics companies, and government departments can all plug into the same rails.
For Indian industry, three pillars of DPI matter most:
Digital Identity (Aadhaar and eKYC) - enabling instant, paperless verification of customers, vendors, and employees.
Digital Payments (UPI and the payments stack) - enabling frictionless, low-cost transactions between businesses and consumers.
Data Empowerment (Account Aggregator, ONDC, OCEN) - enabling consent-based data sharing that unlocks credit, commerce, and market access for businesses of every size.
Together, these layers form what economists now call "the India Stack" - a model that other G20 and Global South economies are actively studying and adopting.
The Business Growth Case: What the Numbers Say
UPI: The Backbone of B2C and B2B Commerce
The Unified Payments Interface has become the most cited global example of DPI-led economic transformation. In FY2025-26, UPI processed a staggering 24,162 crore transactions, up from just two crore transactions in FY2016-17 - a scale-up that few payment systems anywhere in the world have matched. The network now includes 703 banks live on UPI, covering public sector, private, small finance, payments, and cooperative banks, which means even micro-enterprises in tier-3 and tier-4 towns can accept digital payments instantly.
For businesses, this matters directly: UPI now accounts for nearly 85% of India's total digital payment volume, and person-to-merchant transactions make up 63% of total UPI volume - proof that this is no longer just a peer-to-peer convenience tool but core retail and commercial payment infrastructure. Daily transaction volumes have crossed 66 crore transactions, worth close to ₹0.86 lakh crore every single day. Globally, India now accounts for nearly 49% of the world's real-time payment transaction volume, a milestone the International Monetary Fund formally recognised in its June 2025 report - cementing UPI's status as the world's largest real-time payments platform.
For PHDCCI member businesses, particularly MSMEs and retail-facing enterprises, this translates into lower transaction costs, faster settlement, reduced cash-handling risk, and - crucially - a digital transaction trail that can be leveraged for formal credit access.
ONDC: Levelling the E-Commerce Playing Field for MSMEs
If UPI transformed payments, the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) is doing the same for e-commerce access. Traditional e-commerce marketplaces charge sellers commissions ranging from 18% to 40% per transaction, a structure that squeezes margins for small and medium sellers. ONDC, an initiative of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), replaces this with an open-protocol model where commissions typically range between 3% and 10%.
The network has scaled rapidly: from roughly 600 sellers at inception, ONDC now counts over 370,000 vendors and service providers, with fulfilment recorded across 800-plus cities. Significantly for the MSME and kirana ecosystem that PHDCCI actively champions, around 70% of sellers onboarded onto ONDC are small and medium enterprises. Monthly transaction volumes on the network have already crossed the 14-million mark, reflecting genuine buyer-side adoption rather than a purely supply-side push.
For industry bodies, ONDC represents a template worth actively promoting to member businesses: digitised catalogues and verified transaction histories built through participation on the network can, over time, support formalisation and easier access to institutional credit - addressing one of the most persistent constraints facing India's MSME sector.
Account Aggregator, OCEN, and the Democratisation of Business Credit
Perhaps the most underappreciated business-growth lever within DPI is the data-sharing layer - the Account Aggregator (AA) framework and the Open Credit Enablement Network (OCEN). These systems allow businesses to consent to sharing their own financial data (GST returns, bank statements, invoices) directly with lenders, replacing paperwork-heavy loan applications with real-time, consent-based underwriting. As Aadhaar architect Nandan Nilekani has noted, the Account Aggregator Network is designed to work alongside ONDC so that every participant across a supply chain can access formal credit more efficiently - directly addressing the working-capital gap that continues to constrain MSME expansion across India.
Digital Governance Infrastructure Supporting Ease of Doing Business
Beyond payments and commerce, DPI extends into the governance layer that businesses interact with daily. DigiLocker now has more than 70.69 crore registered users and has issued over 850 crore digital documents, dramatically cutting the paperwork burden associated with compliance, verification, and onboarding. The government's API Setu platform - which standardises secure data exchange between systems - now hosts over 8,036 APIs, serving 6,592 consumers and more than 10,530 onboarded organisations, a quiet but critical layer of interoperability infrastructure that businesses building fintech, healthtech, or govtech solutions increasingly rely on.
Taken together, government estimates suggest the digital economy already contributes nearly 12–14% of India's GDP, with projections that it could account for almost one-fifth of the economy within the next decade - a trajectory with direct implications for industry investment, hiring, and long-term strategic planning.
Why This Matters for PHDCCI and Indian Industry
For PHDCCI, whose mandate is to champion the interests of trade, commerce, and industry across sectors and states, DPI is not an abstract policy theme - it is a live growth multiplier. Three implications stand out for members:
Lower cost of doing business. Digital payments, e-KYC, and paperless documentation reduce transaction friction, compliance costs, and working-capital delays - advantages that compound for MSMEs operating on thin margins.
Formal credit access for underserved enterprises. Account Aggregator and OCEN frameworks convert informal, undocumented businesses into credit-visible entities, addressing India's long-standing MSME credit gap.
Market access without platform dependency. ONDC and similar open networks let sellers reach customers nationally without surrendering commissions or data control to a handful of dominant platforms - a genuine democratisation of digital commerce.
Global opportunity. India has signed MoUs with 24 countries for cooperation on India Stack and DPI systems, and UPI is now live in eight countries including the UAE, Singapore, France, Mauritius, and Sri Lanka. For export-oriented Indian businesses and fintech innovators, this cross-border interoperability opens new markets for products and services built on India's DPI rails.
The Road Ahead: Recommendations for Industry
As India's DPI ecosystem matures, PHDCCI believes industry must move from passive beneficiary to active co-architect of this infrastructure. This means:
Encouraging member MSMEs to formally digitise transactions and onboard onto ONDC and UPI-enabled payment systems to build verifiable business credit histories.
Advocating for continued expansion of BharatNet connectivity - which has already connected over 2.15 lakh Gram Panchayats - so that rural and semi-urban enterprises are not left behind in the DPI-led growth story.
Partnering with regulators and NPCI on data protection frameworks that build sustained business and consumer trust in DPI, an area flagged by policy researchers as needing continued strengthening.
Championing sector-specific DPI applications - in logistics, healthcare, agriculture, and skilling - where open digital rails can unlock the same efficiency gains payments and commerce have already demonstrated.
Conclusion
Digital Public Infrastructure has already proven itself as one of the most consequential enablers of business growth in India's recent economic history. From UPI's record-breaking transaction volumes to ONDC's MSME-friendly commerce model and the credit-unlocking potential of Account Aggregator frameworks, DPI is reshaping how Indian businesses transact, borrow, and scale. For PHDCCI and its member industries, the opportunity now lies in translating this infrastructure into tangible enterprise-level outcomes - lower costs, wider markets, and easier credit - ensuring that India's digital public goods truly become India's business growth engine for the decade ahead.
https://www.phdcci.in/events/digital-public-infrastructure-roadmap-for-digital-equity/
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