India has evolved from building digital public infrastructure for domestic use to exporting it as open-source protocols that other nations can deploy. The Modular Open Source Identity Platform (MOSIP), incubated at IIIT Bangalore, provides governments with a customizable, scalable digital identity system. The Philippines was the first large-scale deployment: its PhilSys system, built on MOSIP, has enrolled 76 million of the nation's 110 million citizens. Pilot projects are underway in 16+ additional countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. MOSIP is registered as a UN Digital Public Good.
Beckn Protocol, the open-source protocol underlying India's ONDC (Open Network for Digital Commerce), takes the same approach to commerce. Beckn creates an interoperable protocol layer that allows any buyer app to discover and transact with any seller app — no platform gatekeeping. Think of it as HTTP for commerce: a universal protocol that any application can implement. Countries studying ONDC/Beckn as an alternative to Amazon/Alibaba platform lock-in include several in Southeast Asia and Africa.
This represents a profound shift in India's global technology role. India was historically a consumer and implementer of foreign technology; now it's an originator and exporter of foundational digital infrastructure. The DPI approach — open protocols, government-built, private-sector-leveraged — is being promoted through the G20 framework as a '50-in-5' initiative targeting 50 countries adopting DPI building blocks by 2028. If successful, India would achieve something unprecedented: setting global technology standards not through market dominance (like US tech companies) or political coercion (like China's Digital Silk Road), but through open-source public goods.