Nandan Nilekani’s Tryst With Transformative Technology — From Aadhaar To ONDC

Nandan Nilekani, one of India’s well-known and celebrated entrepreneurs and technocrats, in the last decade has led several technological initiatives in the country. Primarily focused on transforming India’s digital landscape, Nilekani has been the man behind India's Aadhar Program as Chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India, played a role in the introduction of Account Aggregator framework by RBI, and has been instrumental in developing UPI as advisor to NPCI to list a few.

Back in 2015-16, ‎Nilekani had called out "the WhatsApp moment for banking" in India, when he said the emergence of payments banks, e-sign, new licences, and smartphone Aadhar identification, will drive the movement. Fast forward a decade, Nilekani is set to predict the next decade of transformation. 

On Wednesday, the Infosys cofounder will spill the beans on what he thinks are the "big unlocks" needed to increase India's growth to become an $8 trillion economy by 2035, at an event in Bengaluru. But as that is awaited, here is a look at how Nilekani has played a role in building India's digital public infrastructure.

Nandan Nilekani led the UIDAI, which started the Aadhaar project in 2009. With more than 130 crore Indians registered, Aadhaar is the biggest biometric identification system in the world. The project, led by Nilekani, sought to assign each Indian resident a 12-digit identity number that was based on their demographic and biometric information. 

In the past, he has reminisced how he was given a single page brief, which essentially said every Indian must be given a unique ID, which he went on to create a digital system for. 

In his second innings after a successful corporate career, Nilekani brought together experts from Silicon Valley and government honchos to handle this ambitious project. Within a month of joining the project, Nilekani had set a lofty goal of creating 60 crore unique IDs, which fuelled the mission. So far, 138 crore Aadhaar numbers have been generated in India. 

In 2012, Nilekani led a team of bankers and business leaders to talk about the need for a payment system that would enable digital transactions without requiring a mobile wallet. The team put together a report prepared titled 'Committee on Comprehensive Financial Services for Small Businesses and Low-Income Households'. This report recommended development of digital payments infrastructure and setting up a new organisation called the National Payments Corporation of India to develop UPI and other payment systems, as well as a digital payments infrastructure.

He supported the notion of an open architectural platform for UPI, which would enable banks to create their own applications, while preserving compatibility. In order for all of India's major banks to work together on the creation of UPI, Nilekani played a crucial role. He was also instrumental in persuading the RBI to back the project and establish a framework for the nation's digital payments regulations. He serves as an advisor to the NPCI. 

Nilekani helped conceptualise and design the Account Aggregator framework. He has worked extensively on the architecture and execution of AA framework. The Reserve Bank of India spearheaded an inter-regulatory initiative in 2016, alongside SEBI, IRDA, PFRDA, and FSDC to create the Account Aggregator architecture, which enables the safe and consent-based exchange of financial data.

The AA framework has been hailed as the UPI moment for lending, with the potential to improve financial inclusion, expedite financial procedures, and facilitate quicker and more effective access to financial services and products. The RBI has granted AA licenses to facilitate data exchange between Financial Information Providers and Financial Information Users. Consent is required from the user regarding what information can be shared.

Nilekani has also led the ONDC project in India, which is aimed at creating a level playing field for small players. The project, which was spearheaded by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, saw Nilekani help build the open technology network. 

In December 2021, ONDC was established with the goal of enhancing the openness, inclusivity, and competitiveness of e-commerce. Nilekani believes ONDC will democratise e-commerce in India by making sure that everyone can engage in the online market on an equal footing, including restaurants, grocery stores, and small kirana shops. 

Nilekani launched the Open Credit Enablement Network protocol at Global Fintech Festival in 2020, in an effort to democratise credit for small enterprises and assure the recovery of the economy, which was severely impacted by the Covid-19 outbreak. 

The Open Credit Enablement Network, created by the Indian Software Product Industry RoundTable, is a collection of open standards designed to streamline the many parts of the lending value chain. For cooperation and partnerships between lenders and digital platforms known as lending service providers, it establishes a common language.

In the past decade Nilekani has been the brain behind many Digital Public Infrastructure goods that have been introduced in India and played a significant role in transforming the country’s technological and digital landscape. He has time and again promoted all of India’s unique digital solutions and promoted them even on international platforms. 

For the decade ahead Nilekani is likely to build further on the broader themes of financial inclusion and democratisation of technology with the use of artificial intelligence, which he has been vocal about in the recent past.