Digital Public Infrastructure and Financial Self-Reliance: Reimagining India’s Banking and Payments Ecosystem under Atmanirbhar Bharat

Abstract

Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) — publicly governed, interoperable, and built to work at population scale — has become central to how India approaches financial inclusion, welfare delivery, economic resilience, and institutional modernisation. This paper examines the role of DPI in advancing the developmental vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat, analysing its contribution across five dimensions: financial inclusion, transaction efficiency, MSME credit expansion, fiscal governance, and payment sovereignty within India’s banking and payments ecosystem. The study adopts a descriptive, analytical, and policy-oriented design, combining qualitative policy analysis with quantitative trend interpretation of secondary data for 2015–2025, organised through a three-pillar framework of infrastructure expansion, inclusion and resilience outcomes, and governance and sustainability. UPI transaction volumes grew from 1,079 crore in 2019 to over 20,849 crore in 2024, while cumulative DBT transfers crossed ₹30 lakh crore and eliminated an estimated ₹4 lakh crore in leakages. The Account Aggregator framework, together with UPI transaction histories, expands MSME formal credit penetration by reducing information asymmetry. The evidence supports all four hypotheses: DPI improves financial inclusion, digital payments strengthen MSME credit access, DPI reinforces financial resilience and payment sovereignty, and its effectiveness depends on regulatory governance and cybersecurity preparedness. Financial self-reliance in the digital age is built through infrastructure, not isolation.