CareEdge Global Ratings Ranks India's Digital Public Infrastructure Among World's 10 Most Effective Reforms

Key facts

• CareEdge Global Ratings has ranked India's Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) among the world's 10 highly effective structural reforms, citing Aadhaar's reach, UPI transaction scale and growing digital payments by businesses.
• The report examined 43 reform cases across 38 countries; 10 were classified as highly effective, nine as moderately effective, 15 as work in progress and nine as least effective.
• India's Aadhaar system covers more than 1.3 billion people, approximately 95 per cent of the population, while UPI processes more than 13 billion transactions every month.
• Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) conduct more than 85 per cent of their transactions digitally, indicating greater integration with the formal economy.
• India's DPI has expanded access to digital services, reduced transaction costs and supported financial inclusion and economic formalisation.
• Other highly effective reforms included tax digitalisation in Greece, Germany's debt brake, banking reforms in Cyprus and Project Repeal in the Philippines; Europe and Asia-Pacific together accounted for eight of the 10 highly effective cases, four each.
• Institutional coordination and interoperability, with collaboration among government agencies, regulators, banks, payment networks and fintech companies, were identified as key success factors.
• The report stated effective reforms require coherent policy design, proper sequencing, clear mandates, political commitment, stakeholder support and credible implementation.
• Future reforms must address emerging challenges including artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure requirements, climate risks, critical technologies and supply chains.