Building for Billions: The Aadhaar & UPI Story At the Building for Billions event, Mr. Nandan Nilekani, Chairman and Co-founder, Infosys and the architect of India's Aadhaar system, reflected on the design principles behind India's Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and how Aadhaar, UPI, and interoperable platforms transformed financial inclusion at scale. ✅ Aadhaar’s foundational role: Providing a universal digital identity enabled inclusion for millions without formal IDs, allowing seamless KYC and banking access. ✅ UPI’s interoperability: From day one, QR codes on UPI were designed to work across apps, unlocking frictionless payments and new business models. ✅ DPI as a platform for innovation: Open, scalable infrastructure empowered both public and private sectors, leading to rapid adoption—700 million Aadhaar-linked bank accounts and 180 million unique demat accounts. From Aadhaar in 2009 to UPI in 2016, these milestones shaped India's digital economy, proving that designing for simplicity, scale and inclusion can drive transformative change. Rajesh Bansal | Aakarsh Naidu | Somya Singh #BuildingForBillions #FinancialInclusion
We need to come out of the hangover of past glories like Aadhar, UPI et. al. and need to focus on what we want to achieve ahead and how and by when. Innovation = Disruption And Disruption often happens through First Principles.
Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH) This isn’t just a success story for India - it’s a blueprint for the world.
Strategic Relations, South at Newgen Software Technologies Limited
4wI have attended this program. Mr.Nandan Nilekani had shared insights on how to build a product for billion users. He has shared his experiences while developing Aadhar. Some of them are : > Build with inclusive mindset, > Don't Overload / Complicate things. > The process should be completed in 15 minutes > Base id & Functional id are different > Anytime any where enrolment > Interoperability (QR Code) No proprietary > Agency get paid only for successful Aadhar enrolment These are only few pointers.. Others can add.. Thanks for the program ! https://rbihub.in/ #BuildingForBillions