Building Platforms as Digital Public Infrastructure: Trust, Adoption & Ecosystem Value Using India’s UPI as a Case Study
Gupta, A (2025) Building Platforms as Digital Public Infrastructure: Trust, Adoption & Ecosystem Value Using India’s UPI as a Case Study. Dissertation thesis, Indian School of Business.
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Abstract
The world is fast changing, and with digitisation sweeping the world, all the major sectors and industries globally have been disrupted. This disruption has been aggravated and strengthened by the COVID-19 pandemic. India is the leading example that has leveraged the power of technology to make financial inclusion a reality. The foundation of financial literacy has been laid through the JAM trinity (Jan Dhan, Aadhar, and Mobile). Financial inclusion aims to empower the excluded and most vulnerable groups/communities by providing them with affordable access to public goods.
India has made accessible digital public infrastructure (DPIs), which has become a new factor of production in the Indian economy, fostered growth, and led to societal empowerment. Our research has contributed to building the UN definition of Digital Public Infrastructure, which is now defined as
“...a combination of (i) networked open technology standards built for public interest, (ii) enabling governance, and (iii) a community of innovative and competitive market players working to drive innovation, especially across public programs.”
These infrastructures help create and deliver various public and private goods. In today’s era of rapid digitisation, a range of government to private services, activities, and goods are mediated through digital systems. With a global recognition for its significance and potential to drive economic growth, several countries have converged on three fundamentals of DPIs:
1. Identity
2. Payments
3. Data management
India was one of the first countries to develop the three foundational layers of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and called it the ‘India Stack.’ The India stack is a collection of open Application Programming Interfaces (API) and DPGs designed to enable widespread access to these three fundamental layers of identity, data, and payment systems.
Some of the many key components of the India Stack are Aadhaar, Unified Payments Interface (UPI), eKYC, and DigiLocker.
The launch of the UPI was a step in the process of strengthening India's digital payments ecosystem. The UPI was launched in 2016, and over the years, it has become one of the most preferred modes of payment in India. The private sector and startups have leveraged the power of UPI in their platforms. UPI applications such as PhonePe, GPay and Paytm are the most used applications with PhonePe as the leader, followed by GPay and Paytm. It is imperative to understand the reasons for the preference of UPI over other payment methods. The amalgamation and co-existence of different stakeholders such as banks, companies, retailers and consumers on the same platform is crucial for financial inclusion.
The growth of UPI must be understood from the perspective of usage that comes after adoption. There are various factors are responsible for the adoption of UPI, such as:
● access to bank account, identification, mobile and internet
● benefits such as immediate transfer to the bank account
● adoption is low-cost
● trust in the UPI ecosystem- the user trust in the UPI ecosystem comes from its government ownership and a very comprehensive and transparent grievance redressal system that safeguards the interest of users
This is a qualitative research to understand factors impacting user trust in the UPI ecosystem. It explores the discourses behind the higher adoption of UPI among different social classes in India. The study analyses usage data of retailers and consumers from disadvantaged socio-economic sections of society and adoption by the startup ecosystem.
The outcomes are essential for building new DPIs like ONDC within India and setting frameworks for other low and medium-income countries.
Item Type: | Thesis (Dissertation) |
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Subjects: | Business and Management |
Date Deposited: | 06 Oct 2025 16:10 |
Last Modified: | 06 Oct 2025 16:10 |
URI: | https://eprints.exchange.isb.edu/id/eprint/2419 |