India-ASEAN Tech Synergy: Charting a Path to Digital Sovereignty

Introduction 

As the world has been becoming increasingly influenced by digital infrastructure, a rising trust gap is developing around global tech ecosystems. Countries are becoming increasingly cautious about the excessive use of Western or Chinese platforms due to data colonization, spying, and economic blackmail. The concept of digital non-alignment has gained popularity: as geopolitical fault lines become more pronounced, the concept of developing sovereign, interoperable technological solutions that are not under the hegemony of tech giants is on the rise. Among these changes, India stands out in a special position.

India has introduced this concept with its powerful Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) in the form of Aadhaar, UPI, and DigiLocker, and has shown how low-cost and inclusive digital infrastructure can drive development without necessarily relying on foreign technology giants. The model will be an interesting blueprint for the ASEAN countries, which most of them must tackle the issues of technological dependence as well as strategic balancing between the U.S. and China. India is further connecting  with ASEAN, as its DPI ecosystem offers more than a mere tech export: a declaration of geopolitical independence, a new non-aligned digital route to the global south.

The DPI Model of India - Cost-Effective, Scaleable and Secure 

The Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) of India is structured to operate on three inter-compatible pillars, Aadhaar, the Unified Payment Interface (UPI), and DigiLocker, as the matching engine of inclusive governance and digital trust. Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) ecosystem in India, comprising Aadhaar, UPI, and DigiLocker has revolutionized government, financial inclusions and scale in access and usage of data. By mid-2025, Aadhaar enabled more than 150 billion total verifications and 2.1 billion only in April 2025 and the distinctive role in service delivery and e-KYC applications in multilateral sectors. At the same time, in May 2025, UPI was associated with 18.68 billion transactions which means more than 600 million transactions every day. These books highlight the fact that India leads the world in real-time payments (NPCI, 2025). DigiLocker already has almost 539 million users, further demonstrating India has a secure and citizen-focused digital infrastructure. Nations in the ASEAN region find these platforms of strategic relevance since a large number of them do not have inclusive, scalable, and sovereign digital systems.

The success of DPI in India presents a replicable model particularly to other countries in the middle between western tech dominance and the influence of the Chinese in the digital world. India is also transferring DPI designs and technocratic know-how through organizations such as the India-ASEAN Digital Work Plan or India involvement in cross border payment systems (e.g., Project Nexus at the BIS), facilitating digital sovereignty in the Global South.

In addition to tech, India DPI builds at-trust, at-interoperability, and at-local capacity which is key in ASEANs digitalisation. In such a way, Aadhaar, UPI, and DigiLocker systems are not only the domestic instruments, but the diplomatic ones, which makes India a digital development partner of Southeast Asia. Through tech‑neutral APIs, modular architecture, and open access, India’s DPI model offers a replicable blueprint for developing nations to build sovereign, trusted, and affordable digital ecosystems.

At a time when ASEAN countries have grown leaps and bounds in digital adoption, there exists a complex maze of challenges that is limiting inclusive and sovereign growth in digital in the region. The problem is inhibitory infrastructure gaps, especially in rural and underserved locations. The internet penetration in the ASEAN is very uneven with developing countries like Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar depicted to fall behind the developed countries like Singapore or Malaysia as outlined by ASEAN Digital Masterplan 2025. Inequitable access leads to a sluggish e-governance, online payments, and provision of services.

The second threat is overdependence on foreign digital ecosystems such as those of China like WeChat Pay and Alipay or Western such as those of Google Cloud, Meta, or AWS. These dependencies create data sovereignty, vendor lock-in over long periods, and geopolitical risks. In many countries in ASEAN, the governmental policies do not give them the bargaining power nor provide the institutional frameworks to negotiate fair data-sharing or localisation policies.

Worse is that we lack trusted, interoperable systems that can both scale locally and protect the privacy of those citizens, and support digital inclusion. The National ID systems are still not established and cross-border payment systems are still in the developmental stages. The biggest drawback of failing to develop a resilient public digital infrastructure is ASEAN fostering a greater digital divide—not only internally, but also among nations. The smaller economies may lack resiliency and remain vulnerable to hacking. The DPI model proposed by India provides a path toward fulfilling these gaps, where open, modular, and low-cost frameworks that are trust based are put forward, ones that focus upon security and inclusivity, and that are not laden with geopolitical political conditions.

India ASEAN Synergy through DPI: Digital Trust and Inclusion Acceleration 

In October 2024 at the 21st ASEAN-India Summit, India and ASEAN agreed to establish a formal commitment to further collaboration on Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) development and a list of proposed actions in this area, potentiating cooperation in the knowledge-sharing, API-led collaboration, and capacity building on both the sectoral and regional levels on education, healthcare, agriculture, fintech, climate-resilience, and smart cities.

Major Themes of Cooperation

Capacity Building & Knowledge Sharing: To train ASEAN professionals on the implementation of the DPI frameworks such as Aadhaar, UPI, DigiLocker, Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, and e-Sanjeevani, India will utilize the platforms available to it such as the ASEAN-India Digital Ministers Meetings and Regional Workshops. These programs are specifically on smaller CLMV countries that require institutional reinforcement.

API & Payment System Integration: India and ASEAN are considering cross-border connection of payment systems, which will allow ASEAN users to use the UPI-type of real-time payments. Projects such as Project Nexus which has been piloted involving Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and Thailand are intended to realize fintech interoperability and lower remittance costs in the region.

Mutual Trust & Cybersecurity Networks: To promote digital ecosystems in a secure environment, both parties have agreed to extend the cybersecurity cooperation through the ASEAN India Track 1 Cyber Policy Dialogue. The Indian national malware repository model is the one that may be shared, and the interoperability of regional threat-exchange portals and encryption standards is under consideration.

Conclusion

Such an interplay makes India a contributor of not only DPI technical skills but also a godfather of regional digital conferencing nets. This cooperation helps build a geopolitically balanced architecture of inclusiveness and interoperability, rather than being tied specifically to technological integration, for ASEAN countries, as digital models are enriched by scalable digital platforms, secure and open digital models and advanced digital models, that are built into scalable secure, and open architectures.

The basis for a ‘Non-Aligned Digital Trust Corridor’ is a shared digital area based on sovereignty, transparency, and inclusivity which is being established as ASEAN and India expand their cooperation on Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI). This corridor, which offers scalable, secure, and affordable digital solutions created in the Global South, for the Global South, can be a reliable substitute for an excessive reliance on Western or Chinese platforms. A robust digital ecosystem free from geopolitical pressure can be established by ASEAN and India through collaboratively creating interoperable systems, enhancing cybersecurity cooperation, and enhancing local capacity. This program makes sure that autonomy and trust are not sacrificed in the name of digital transformation. A collaborative, non-aligned, and people-first digital order could be promoted by ASEAN and India working together.

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This article, written by Poshika Mukku and Hemanath Siyamaaruban Atal, is part of the India–ASEAN Youth Conference 2025, co-hosted by Foreign Policy Talks and The Geostrata. The conference brings together young leaders from India and Southeast Asia to foster dialogue and strengthen regional cooperation.