India shows way forward on multipolar digital economy at BRICS Summit

New Delhi, Sep 15 (IANS) The New Delhi Declaration, adopted at the '2026 BRICS Summit', will also be remembered for floating the idea about a multipolar digital economy that works with sovereign systems that remain nationally controlled while becoming increasingly interoperable, according to an article in Modern Diplomacy.

It highlights that the declaration placed sovereign digital ecosystems, interoperable Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), and artificial intelligence (AI) inside the bloc’s broader development agenda.

It also welcomed work on a BRICS DPI repository and pilot projects while recognising the Digital BRICS Forum and the Focus Group on Digital Public Infrastructure.

The idea assumes significance as for emerging markets, the challenge is to absorb foreign technology while preserving enough freedom to combine suppliers, change course, and negotiate from a position of choice, states the article by Tuhu Nugraha.

India’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) is commonly associated with Aadhaar, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), DigiLocker and consent-based data-sharing systems.

These can remain nationally governed while governments and private firms build services on top, it points out.

India has increasingly carried this principle into its diplomacy. The government says it has signed India Stack and DPI cooperation agreements with 24 countries, covering digital identity, payments, data exchange, and public-service delivery. Its own description is revealing: the objective is cooperation on architecture and design principles rather than simply exporting finished products, the article observes.

India first gave DPI broad multilateral visibility through its 2023 G20 presidency. BRICS provides a different opportunity. The grouping brings together economies seeking greater influence for the Global South while differing sharply in political systems, currencies, technological capabilities, and relationships with Washington and Beijing, the article observes.

That heterogeneity makes deep harmonisation difficult. However, interoperability sets a lower threshold as national systems can remain distinct while common standards and interfaces allow them to communicate, the article points out.

Payments provide the clearest illustration, but the logic goes further. National payment rails can connect without being replaced. Digital credentials can potentially become verifiable across jurisdictions. Trusted data can move through agreed governance arrangements without creating one supranational database.

The proposition is coordination while preserving national control, says the article.

This architecture fits India’s geopolitical position unusually well.

China remains simultaneously a neighbour, major economic partner, strategic competitor, and fellow BRICS member. India has, meanwhile, deepened technology and security cooperation with the United States while preserving its longstanding preference for strategic autonomy, the article observes.

It points out that an interoperable digital architecture complements that balancing instinct. India can retain control over critical national systems, work across competing technology ecosystems, and maintain alternatives as geopolitical conditions change.

In that sense, its digital policy gives an infrastructural expression to strategic autonomy.

The same logic may be even more relevant to emerging economies with fewer technological resources. Most Global South countries will continue to depend on foreign cloud providers, semiconductors, AI models, telecom equipment, or industrial technologies.

One economy may simultaneously use American cloud services, Chinese hardware, Japanese or Korean industrial systems, Indian-inspired DPI, European regulatory standards, and locally developed applications, the article further states.

--IANS

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