Ep 014 - AI Meets India Stack: What It Means for the Future of Digital Public Infrastructure - Omprakash Subbarao

Can AI + India Stack become a global model for digital infrastructure?

India has built something few countries have: digital rails at population scale. But what happens when AI is layered on top of Aadhaar, UPI and public digital infrastructure?

In this episode of Chai & Chips, Om and I explore a bigger question:

Could India have a unique advantage in the AI era because of its digital public infrastructure?
We discuss:

One idea from this conversation stayed with me: AI alone may not be the advantage. AI + infrastructure might be.

If that interests you, I think you’ll enjoy this episode.

Chapters:
01:00 - Introduction — What Must Be True for AI in DPI?
04:17 - Om’s Journey into India’s Digital Public Infrastructure
08:44 - Why India Stack Is Different from the Rest of the World
14:25 - The Core Building Blocks: Identity, Payments and Trust
26:52 - Opportunities at Population Scale: Health, Services and Inclusion
31:49 - Consent, Privacy and the Governance Challenge
42:10 – Ayushman Bharat – Risks, Opportunities & Impact
50:58 – Rapid Fire
54:07 – Why our R&D is weak; Case for India as a Use Case Factory
01:07:08 - Building AI Applications on Top of India Stack
01:10:33 - How to Build for Trust at Population Scale
01:21:53 – Final Question – Vision for India

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Resources:
Find Om on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/omprakash-subbarao-5372564/
Find Prakash on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prakash-mallya/  
Find Prakash on X: https://x.com/PrakashMallya
Find Prakash on Substack: https://www.prakashmallya.com/s/chai-and-chips-podcast
Find Prakash on Medium: https://medium.com/@pmallya2411

All episode transcripts are available on Substack and Medium.