India's Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and Digital Sovereignty in the Global Political Economy

India's Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) represents an important experiment in digital statecraft. The India Stack forms the foundation of this evolving public digital ecosystem. This article examines DPI through debates on digital sovereignty and geoeconomics. Digital geoeconomics refers to the strategic uses of digital systems for geopolitical influence. The article argues that India developed a distinctive publicly governed digital infrastructure model. India combines public infrastructure with competitive private innovation across interoperable digital platforms. Its model differs from systems dominated by private technology corporations or centralized states. Drawing on empirical evidence from digital identity (Aadhaar), real-time payments (Unified Payments Interface), consent-based data-sharing frameworks (Account Aggregators under the Data Empowerment and Protection Architecture), and cross-border DPI diplomacy, the paper demonstrates how India's model strengthens domestic state capacity, reshapes market structures, and generates standards-based geopolitical leverage. The analysis evaluates governance trade-offs, including privacy protection, market concentration, exclusion risks, regulatory divergence, and cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and assesses the institutional reforms necessary to sustain legitimacy and exportability. The article concludes that India's DPI transcends technological modernization; it constitutes a macroeconomic enabler and a strategic geoeconomic asset that reconfigures governance norms, financial networks, and patterns of interdependence in the twenty-first century global order.