India Stack expanding financial, digital inclusion: Report

New Delhi: India’s robust digital public infrastructure and technology-driven initiatives have laid a strong foundation for the growth of agentic artificial intelligence built on trusted data and integrated systems, according to a report released on Friday.

The report by the World Economic Forum highlighted that India Stack has emerged as a critical set of digital rails that have significantly expanded financial and digital inclusion across the country. India Stack comprises platforms such as Aadhaar for digital identity, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which processes more than 18 billion transactions every month, DigiLocker, and the Account Aggregator framework.

“With a $4 trillion economy, a young and digitally adept population, and policies that emphasise openness, India is well placed to shape this new era through models that blend scale, sustainability, and equity,” the report said.

It noted that the government is further strengthening this ecosystem through investments in next-generation computing and artificial intelligence. Key initiatives include the National Quantum Mission, which aims to develop 1,000-qubit quantum computers by 2031, and the expansion of AI computing capacity backed by 18,693 GPUs.

The report stressed that inclusive progress depends not merely on technological tools, including agentic AI, but on how institutions redesign systems, skills, and values to govern their deployment effectively.

Commending India’s approach, the think tank described India Stack as an ambitious effort to reimagine technology as a public good while deploying models that balance scale, sustainability, and equity.

The report also projected that AI agents could manage nearly 45 per cent of routine enterprise tasks by 2029. However, it cautioned that over 80 per cent of generative AI pilots have yet to generate measurable revenue gains, and only one-third of employees feel that approved AI tools adequately meet their needs. Despite this, early adopters have reported productivity improvements of 40–60 per cent.

According to the report, scaling such gains will require new technological architectures and decisive leadership, as agentic AI rapidly becomes central to enterprise operations. Analysts further estimated that AI and related technologies could generate 170 million new jobs by 2030, even as 92 million roles may be displaced, underscoring the need for investments in skills, ethical system design, and inclusive growth.

With inputs from IANS