Digital India

TODO: confirm latest enrollment figure from UIDAI dashboard. Aadhaar was launched in 2009 (pre-2014) and is the DPI backbone for DBT, Jan Dhan, and UPI. Shared credit: the infrastructure predates 2014. Source ↗

DigiLocker is a government document wallet for storing and sharing digitally signed documents: Aadhaar, driving licence, vehicle RC, degree certificates, COVID vaccine certificates, PAN, etc. 65 crore users have stored 700+ crore documents/certificates. Accepted as valid originals in courts and government processes. Supreme Court and 1,300+ issuers integrated. Concerns: digital divide excludes elderly/rural users; data breach risks from centralised storage. Source ↗

Covers all RBI-tracked digital payment channels: NEFT, RTGS, IMPS, UPI, debit/credit cards, mobile banking. Total digital transactions by volume grew from 976 crore in FY2014 to 18,737 crore in FY2024 — a ×19 increase. UPI alone now accounts for >50% of all digital transaction volume. Cash-to-GDP ratio declined from ~12% in 2016 to ~9% by 2024, though demonetisation (2016) disrupts comparisons. Source ↗

TODO: confirm latest subscriber figure from TRAI telecom subscription report. Growth driven by Jio entry (2016), BharatNet rural broadband, and cost reduction in mobile data. Source ↗

UMANG (Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance) launched November 2017 as a single app integrating central and state government services: EPFO, CBSE, Aadhaar, passport, DigiLocker, PMAY, health, and more. 1,963 services from 200+ departments across Centre and states as of FY2024. 9 crore+ downloads. Challenges: service quality varies widely; many services require physical follow-up; rural adoption limited by digital literacy gaps. Source ↗

FY2025-26 figure (~₹314 lakh crore) is provisional and extrapolated from NPCI monthly releases. Exact annual total to be confirmed upon official NPCI year-end publication. Source ↗

UPI is India's own interoperable real-time payments stack, built on the Aadhaar/DPI infrastructure. Now handles >40% of global real-time payment transactions. Built and operated by NPCI (a non-profit infrastructure body) with RBI oversight. The baseline (FY2016-17) is from UPI's first full year of operation. Source ↗