xli. India Stacks

India Stack is a name used to describe a collection of disparate technology products and framework. Components of this collection are owned & maintained by different agencies.
Open API team at iSPIRIT has been a pro-bono partner in the development, evolution and evangelization of these APIs and systems.
None of the systems which are include in the India Stack require any proprietary technology or intellectual property, hence, can be easily implemented in any country across the world.

API included in India Stack

Aadhaar: Bedrock of India Stack is a set of digital identity products centered around Aadhaar. Aadhaar program is being implemented by Unique Identification Authority of India, a statutory body constituted under Aadhaar Act, 2016. Currently, more than 95% Indians possess an Aadhaar number allowing them to:
- Remotely authenticate attributes such as name, age, address, mobile number, email address, gender via a two-factor or biometric authentication.
- Receiving digitally signed & universally accepted copies of lifetime records such as driver’s license, educational diplomas, insurance policies etc.
- Signing documents or messages using a government backed digital signature service.
eSign: It is a digital signature product built on top of Aadhaar. It allows any Aadhaar holder to produce legally valid digital signatures on any document, at any time, using any device. Consent for this signature is obtained through a one-time password sent to the signer’s Aadhaar linked mobile number.
Digital Locker (DigiLocker): It is a public utility provided to Aadhaar holders by the Union Government. The service allows an Aadhaar holder to sign in using a one-time password sent to the mobile number used to enroll on Aadhaar. DigiLocker is a secure cloud-based platform for storage, sharing and verification of documents & certificates. Once inside, residents of India will find several digital signed, legally valid electronic documents such driver’s license, education degrees, Aadhaar card and even insurance policies. Implemented by Digital India Corporation under Ministry of Electronics & IT (MEITY).
Unified Payment Interface (UPI): It is a revolutionary, user-friendly, real time payment solution that facilitates inter-bank transactions, and enables greater digital payments adoption in the country. Developed and launched by the National Payments Corporation of India in 2016, UPI is now one of the most preferred payment solutions in India, with over a billion transactions every month. Benefits of UPI are:
- Immediate money transfer through mobile device 24X7X365 days.
- Single mobile application for accessing different bank accounts.
- Single Click 2-Factor Authentication yet provides a strong feature of seamless single click payment.
- Payment using QR Code, Utility Bill Payments.
- Complaints to mobile app directly.
E-Office: It is a complete digital workplace solution for government offices. It assists departments in informed and quick decision making and less paper office. The Open Architecture on which eOffice has been built, makes it a reusable framework and a standard reusable product amenable to replication across the governments, at the central, state and district levels. The product brings together the independent functions and systems under a single framework.
e-Sanjeevani: National Telemedicine Service of India & world’s largest telemedicine implementation network in primary healthcare. It functions in two modes:
- eSanjeevani AB-HWC (Provider to Provider telemedicine platform): An assisted telemedicine system that connects patients through health workers and medical officers in Health & Wellness Centers to doctors and specialists in hubs established in secondary/tertiary level health facilities or medical colleges. Based on hub and spoke model.
- eSanjeevaniOPD (a patient to provider telemedicine platform): Empowers citizens to access outpatient services in the confines of their homes through smartphones or laptops etc.
- Going forward, point of care diagnostic devices will also be integrated in the eSanjeevani platform. It is operated by Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.
National Digital Health Mission (NDHM): Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ANDM) aims to develop the necessary backbone to support integrated digital health infrastructure in India. However, participation of citizens and healthcare facility is voluntary in ABDM. Components of ABDM are:
- ABHA Number: An individual/citizen/patient will be provided with a randomly generated 14-digit number known as ABHA for uniquely identifying a person in the digital health ecosystem, authenticate himself and link his health records with consent across multiple systems and stakeholders.
- Healthcare Professionals Registry (HPR): Comprehensive registry of all healthcare professionals involved in healthcare services across both modern and traditional systems of medicine.
- Health Facility Registry (HFR): Comprehensive registry of health facilities (Hospitals, clinics, diagnostic labs, imaging centers, pharmacies etc.) across different systems of medicines including both public and private health facilities.
- Unified Health Interface (UHI): An open protocol for various digital health services focusing on End User Applications and participating Health Service Provider applications such as appointment booking, teleconsultation, service discovery etc.
E-Hospital: A one stop solution that connects patients, hospitals and doctors on a single digital platform. Helps for efficient appointments in government hospitals.
Data Empowerment & Protection Architecture (DEPA): Aims to empower every India with control over their data. DEPA’s institutional Architecture involves the creation of new market players knowns as Consent Managers who play the role of enabling consent management for the user. These consent managers are ‘data blind’ and will not see user data themselves; rather they will serve as a conduit for encrypted data flows. DEPA’s technology architecture is an interoperable, secure, and privacy preserving framework for data sharing through:
- A technology standard for a machine-readable Consent Artefact.
- Open APIs for data sharing.
- A standard for Financial information.
Account Aggregators (AA): Account Aggregator is a consent manager for Financial Data. They are a new class of NBFCs approved by RBI to manage consent for financial data sharing. Licenses for entities to operated as AAs is given by RBI. Entities regulated by RBI, SEBI, IRDA & PFRDA can access and share data with AAs. Citizens will have choice to choose which AAs would act as their ‘consent manager’ and facilitate their data sharing from financial information providers to financial information users. Technology standards for Account Aggregators have been developed by Reserve Bank Information Technology Limited (ReBIT).
Open Credit Enablement Network (OCEN): An open standards-based network to accelerate access to affordable, formal credit. acts as a bridge between lenders, borrowers, and other credit infrastructure providers, enabling them to interact with each other in a secure, reliable, and efficient manner. With OCEN, borrowers can easily access credit from multiple lenders, while lenders can easily verify the borrower’s identity, creditworthiness, and other relevant details before disbursing the loan. The platform’s open architecture and standard APIs make integrating with OCEN easy for other credit infrastructure providers, creating a robust credit ecosystem that benefits all stakeholders. Moreover, OCEN’s platform ensures that all transactions are secure, compliant with regulatory requirements, and protect user privacy. It has been developed by iSpirit.