In their recent article for Forbes India, From Digital Reach to Digital Depth: Dissecting India’s UPI Usage by State and Merchant Category, Professor R. Srinivasan, Chairperson of the Centre for Digital Public Goods (CDPG) and Professor of Strategy at IIM Bangalore, and Dr. M. Balakrishnan, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre, unpack the story behind UPI’s headline numbers.
While UPI processed an unprecedented 18.4 billion transactions in June 2025 alone, the authors argue that true progress lies not just in scale, but in inclusivity and balanced development.
A recent article for Business Standard, co-authored by Prof. R. Srinivasan, Strategy area, IIMB, with Prof. Amar Saxena, Ratan Tata Maharashtra State Skills University, explores how digital technology is bringing transparency and efficiency to India’s NPA (Non-Performing Asset) disposal process. Despite the regulatory frameworks of SARFAESI and IBC, inefficiencies remain due to high transaction costs, limited trust, and information asymmetry. The authors highlight how platforms are reducing NPA disposal time, increasing bidder participation, and unlocking value for both banks and buyers, paving the way for a more accessible and liquid distressed asset market.
As India marks a decade of Digital India, Prof. R. Srinivasan, Strategy area and Chairperson of the Centre for Digital Public Goods at IIMB, co-authors a timely piece, ‘Decoding digital public infrastructure for India’s future’, for The Sunday Guardian, on the growing capability of India’s open, interoperable, and citizen-centric DPI model.
In a piece for Forbes India, Prof. R. Srinivasan, Strategy area, and Balakrishnan M., Post Doctoral Research Fellow, Centre for Digital Public Goods, IIMB, ask: what’s next for QR-based payments?
‘UPI: The Imperative for a unified QR ecosystem’ reflects on a growing structural fault line in India’s digital payments ecosystem. While UPI QRs are interoperable within the UPI ecosystem across banks, prepaid issuers, and apps, they remain incompatible with other major payment networks like Visa and Mastercard. Its near-ubiquitous use and exclusion of major payment networks risks introducing potential points of failure.
In an article for Forbes India, ‘From UPI to ONDC: The role of centralised orchestration in DPI success’, Prof. R. Srinivasan, Strategy area, and Dr. Balakrishnan M, Post Doctoral Research Fellow, Centre for Digital Public Goods, IIMB, explore why some of India’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) systems like Aadhaar and UPI have scaled massively, while others like ONDC, DigiLocker, and AA remain under-leveraged. They presented a roadmap for DPI success, not just through technology, but through orchestration, trust, and value creation, offering key insights for policymakers, technologists, and public leaders shaping India’s digital future.
‘Transforming B2B logistics through digital platforms’ for Manufacturing Today, by Prof. R Srinivasan, Strategy area, and PhD scholar Rashi Agarwala, examines how the integration of digital platforms and DPI is reshaping the structure and governance of B2B logistics with a focus on RoaDo, a B2B logistics management digital platform based in India.