At the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai, Infosys co-founder and chairman Nandan Nilekani highlighted that startups leveraging India’s digital public infrastructure (DPI) are now valued at $100 billion. Nilekani emphasized that the development of Aadhar and the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) was designed to lay down foundational “rails” for private sector innovation.

“The estimated market value of startups built on India’s DPI is approximately $100 billion,” Nilekani stated.

Looking ahead, Nilekani introduced the concept of “Finternet,” a vision he shares with others. According to Nilekani, Finternet aims to create a user-centric, unified financial infrastructure encompassing all types of assets.

He noted that traditional financial systems are struggling to meet user demands for greater choice and control. The Finternet concept proposes integrating various asset types—such as land, property, bonds, financial investments, and art—into a single, tokenized infrastructure.

“Finternet will enable participation and control over diverse asset types, including user-controlled assets, NFTs (non-fungible tokens), certified assets, registered assets like land, and regulated financial products,” he explained.

Nilekani also mentioned that he has co-authored a paper on Finternet with Pramod Varma, Siddharth Shetty, and Agustin Carstens, along with the BIS (Bank for International Settlements) team, published in April 2024.