After UPI Success, India Plans Public Digital Infrastructure for Artificial Intelligence
Highlighting the India AI Mission, the minister also said that some solutions developed under the mission would be made accessible free of cost to a large segment of the population.
New Delhi: Information & broadcasting and electronics & information technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday said that the government is working on creating a UPI-like public digital infrastructure for artificial intelligence as part of the India AI Mission. “The proposed framework would allow multiple AI models to operate on a common structure, similar to how interoperable systems underpin India’s digital payments ecosystem,” Vaishnaw said while speaking at the India AI Impact Summit 2026.
Highlighting the India AI Mission, the minister also said that some solutions developed under the mission would be made accessible free of cost to a large segment of the population. “The government sees significant potential for AI-led applications in agriculture, MSMEs and personalised education tools, with a strong emphasis on affordability,” he said.
Vaishnaw further said that several companies have expressed interest in setting up AI server manufacturing facilities in India. “India is positioning itself as a major processing hub, with a “large amount of the world’s data” expected to be processed in the country in the coming years,” he added.
Meanwhile, the country's biggest payment platform National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which operates the Unified Payments Interface, announced a collaboration with NVIDIA to scale sovereign AI capabilities for India’s digital payments ecosystem. “The partnership will combine its experience in running population-scale, real-time payment systems with NVIDIA’s accelerated computing and AI platforms, with a focus on trust, resilience and security,” NPCI said.
Focusing particularly on India’s practical applications of AI, including enterprise productivity, and solutions for population-scale challenges such as healthcare, agriculture, and climate change. The minister also expressed happiness over the strong participation and optimism shown by young people at an AI Expo on Tuesday.
He informed that about 2.5 lakh attendees, mostly under the age of 30, took part across the exhibition area. “It was a phenomenal response when I interacted with the young minds. I was so surprised by the optimism that most of the young people expressed towards this opportunity which is coming for them,” he said.
