My guest today is Nandan Nilekani. Nandan is one of the most transformative figures in the Indian technology landscape, both in the private and public sector. He co-founded Infosys - one of the world’s largest information technology services firms with a market cap of over $75B, and served as the Chairman of UIDAI which developed many of India’s world class public digital infrastructure initiatives such as Aadhar, UPI, OCEN, amongst others. Nandan is often referred to as India’s CTO and I’m thrilled today to have the opportunity to speak with him.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.

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Show Notes

[00:02:20] - [First question] - The original thought process and vision for the India Stack

[00:04:12] - How India reached their level of financial services in just seven years compared to the forty five year estimate

[00:06:37] - Overview of the three components of the India Stack: identity, payments, and data empowerment

[00:10:21] - Some of the non obvious insights when designing a system that onboards a billion people and maintains utility amongst them

[00:13:51] - A dramatic reduction in the cost of KYC and second and third order effects because of it

[00:17:03] - Breaking down and understanding the product ecosystem that is Aadhar

[00:18:50] - Whether or not it was controversial having the private and public sectors both participate in Aadhar

[00:20:58] - Overview of the UPI system and its underlying protocol

[00:23:29] - Understanding the Indian economic landscape today in relation to UPI

[00:28:10] - Framing data empowerment and the types of applications it enables

[00:32:03] - Account aggregator as a data access fiduciary and their role in the system

[00:34:44] - Unpacking the impact of data empowerment through a micro and macro lens

[00:38:28] - Thinking about formal and informal economies in relation to the India Stack

[00:40:44] - Other unique characteristics of the India Stack

[00:42:33] - His perspective on what the future holds for India over the coming decades

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Nandan Nilekani - Building the India Stack: UPI, Aadhar and Data Empowerment - [Return on India, EP.02]