• Print

    Featured

    ISAS publishes a regular series of featured which provides quick analytical responses to developments and occurrences in South Asia.​​​

    India’s Techade: Digital Revolution and Change in the World’s Largest Democracy

    Nalin Mehta

    24 August 2023

    Over two decades, and across two different political regimes, the world’s largest democracy combined the rise of cheap mobile phones, cheap data and a unique digital ID system to create an unprecedented revolution in digital public goods. This included the rise of path-breaking fintech systems like Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the creation of a new kind of welfare state based on digital direct benefit transfers and interlinked e-governance systems that brought almost half a billion people who never had bank accounts into the financial system.

    India’s Techade pieces together the story of how this digital revolution came to be. It is a crisp, yet comprehensive account of the systems, the innovators, the processes and the political will that drove the digital enterprise across India.