The India Stack & AI
WebVerbal Infra Desk
The world built walled gardens.
India built a public highway.
The India Stack is the most ambitious digital public infrastructure project in history. From Identity (Aadhar) to Payments (UPI) to Data (DEPA), we track the “Rails” that allow startups to build billion-dollar outcomes at zero marginal cost.
VELOCITY
120 Billion
Annual UPI transactions, creating a “Cashless First” economy.
INTERFACE
Voice AI
70% of search volume in rural India is now voice-based (Bhashini).
ACCESS
Credit Flow
The Account Aggregator network has enabled ₹20,000 Cr in SME loans.
Payments
UPI, Rupay, and the death of the MDR (Merchant Discount Rate) revenue model.
Identity
Aadhar, DigiLocker, and the “Presenceless” verification layer for fintech.
Data
DEPA (Data Empowerment) and how AI models are being trained on vernacular datasets.
The AI Layer
Vernacular intelligence for the next billion.
AdoptionAI Literacy is a Context Problem
Why Western LLMs fail in rural India, and how “Small Language Models” are winning.
SignalContext-First AI
How Tier-2 businesses are using AI for workflow automation, not just content creation.
Digital Public Infrastructure
The code that runs the country.
FintechThe UPI Commerce Index 2026
Analysis of how UPI Autopay and Credit-on-UPI are replacing credit cards.
CreditThe Cash-Flow Lending Revolution
Moving from “Asset-Backed” to “Information-Collateralized” lending for SMEs.
Infrastructure FAQ
Decoding the acronyms.
What is the ‘India Stack’?
The India Stack is a set of open APIs that allows governments, businesses, and startups to utilize a unique digital infrastructure to solve India’s hard problems towards presence-less, paperless, and cashless service delivery.
How is AI changing UPI payments?
AI is enabling ‘Voice-to-Peer’ payments. Users in Tier-2/3 cities can now speak in their native dialect to initiate UPI transactions, removing the literacy barrier from digital finance.
What is the Account Aggregator (AA) framework?
AA is a financial data-sharing system that gives consumers control over their data, allowing them to share financial records with lenders digitally to get faster access to credit (Cash Flow based lending vs Asset based).
“Infrastructure is destiny.”