The Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) Turn in India’s Urban Transportation Policy: Challenges and Opportunities

Excited to share a new policy report I wrote for IT for Change: The DPI Turn in India's Urban Transportation Policy.

India's transport sector is at an inflection point. City stacks, open mobility networks, and interoperable payment systems are being positioned as the next wave of urban infrastructure. This report is a first attempt to look at how Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) can serve the people who depend on urban mobility most — residents of informal settlements, working-class commuters, and users who are fragmented transport networks.

The report argues that the transport justice question has to be built into Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) development from the outset so that it can be implemented with larger macro policies, and not treated as an outcome that better technology will eventually deliver.

Key threads: the legacy of governance fragmentation that new digital systems are inheriting; why expanding buses and bus stops remains a prerequisite that no "top layer" solution can substitute; how the datafication turn under the Smart Cities Mission has lessons for what city stacks must avoid.

This is part of a research collaboration with IT for Change and the University of Western Australia, supported by the Australia-India Cyber and Critical Technology Partnership. I thank the entire IT for Change who have been so supportive and informative about developments in Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), through feedback and convenings with key stakeholders in the public services and digital transformation ecosystem. 

I want to appreciate and highlight scholars and transport practitioners whose work I have depended on and referenced: Ravi Gadepalli, Khaliq Parkar, Devika Prakash, Persis Taraporevala, WRI India, Civic Data Lab, Aneesh Mugulur, feedback and participants at workshop hosted by Centre for Information Technology and Public Policy, IIIT Bangalore. 

Full Open Access Report