Aadhar & UPI: India's Greatest Soft Power Export Yet

Aadhar & UPI: India's Greatest Soft Power Export Yet

In the 21st century, soft power is no longer just about movies, music, and media. It’s about code, connectivity, and credibility. And India, a rising digital superpower, is sitting on a goldmine of soft power—two public digital infrastructure platforms that are already transforming lives domestically and now have the potential to reshape the Global South: Aadhar and UPI.

While China built ports and roads under its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and the United States exported its culture through Hollywood and Silicon Valley, India quietly built the most advanced digital identity and payments infrastructure in the world. Now, the next great wave of development in the Global South won’t be powered by bricks and mortar, but by digital rails—and India is in prime position to lay them down.

What Aadhar and UPI Represent

Aadhar is the largest biometric digital identity system in the world, with over a billion citizens enrolled. It has enabled everything from direct benefit transfers to secure access to government services, and forms the backbone of India's digital public infrastructure.

UPI (Unified Payments Interface) is a real-time payment system that has revolutionized financial transactions in India. In a few short years, it turned India from a cash-heavy economy to a leader in mobile payments—processing over 11 billion transactions monthly as of mid-2025.

These tools aren’t just Indian triumphs—they are blueprints for transformation.

Why the Global South Needs This

Across Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America, hundreds of millions still lack digital identities or access to the formal banking system. Without IDs, people can't vote, open bank accounts, or access public benefits. Without seamless payment systems, economies remain informal, prone to corruption, and slow to scale.

That’s where Aadhar and UPI come in.

By licensing and deploying these tools across the Global South, India offers something no one else has: a tested, open, inclusive system, proven at scale, with no colonial strings attached.

The New Soft Power

This isn’t just about infrastructure. It's about influence. Countries that digitize with India’s help will look to India as a partner, not a patron. India won't just be a supplier of software—it will be seen as a visionary leader of the digital age, a true ally in the fight against poverty, exclusion, and inefficiency.

This soft power could eclipse China’s BRI, which has led to debt traps and allegations of neocolonialism. It could surpass America’s soft power rooted in culture, which has little direct impact on governance or economic empowerment. India’s gift is empowerment through code—something uniquely modern, replicable, and deeply transformative.

Beyond Aid: A Platform for Global Good

Imagine a poor farmer in Ghana opening a digital wallet linked to a biometric ID within minutes—no paperwork, no corruption, instant access to credit. Or a health worker in Kenya receiving direct aid with full transparency. Or a small businesswoman in Peru making cross-border payments without exorbitant fees.

This is not a fantasy. It is within reach, and India is the only country that has built this end-to-end system, run it at scale, and is now willing to share it.

The Business of Benevolence

For India, this is not just diplomacy—it’s smart geopolitics and good business. Licensing deals, partnerships with telcos and fintechs, and participation in national digital transformation projects across dozens of countries will create massive new revenue streams, generate goodwill, and open doors for Indian enterprises worldwide.

Think of it as the Digital BRI, but ethical, open-source, and scalable. And powered not by debt, but by dignity.

A Call to Action

If India's greatest soft power export in the 20th century was Gandhi, in the 21st century, it will be GovTech. Not the kind that spies or controls, but the kind that liberates and empowers.

The time is now. If India can lead this charge, it will not only reshape the future of the Global South—but also redefine what it means to be a global power in the AI and digital age.

India doesn’t need to build empires. It just needs to build platforms—and share them.

That’s real power. And it’s time the world experienced it.

Aadhar & UPI: India's Greatest Soft Power Export Yet

— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) June 2, 2025