As digital technologies continue to evolve and proliferate among the public, their use in governance is motivated by a compulsion to harness their ubiquity in daily life. At the heart of the turn to the digital in welfare governance are arguments about inclusion, speed, transparency, convenience, and efficiency. States trying to plug leaky welfare delivery pipelines that are vulnerable to fraudulent human interventions view digital systems as being more cost efficient, trustworthy and inclusive because they permit direct targeting and tracking of benefits to beneficiaries.
This report draws on Dr Mudliar’s research on the role of India’s Aadhaar, a compulsory citizen biometric digital ID system which serves as the basis for welfare delivery to highlight the overlooked private costs borne by citizens in the process of engaging with the DPI (Mudliar, 2020a, 2020b, 2021, 2024). Preeti shared her insights into the frictions and uncertainties that underpin the functioning of digital public infrastructures, and how India’s experience compares with digital systems elsewhere.
The report was written as part of the 2025–2026 Maitri Fellowship supported by the Centre for Australia-India Relations (CAIR).
