The New Delhi Declaration, adopted at the 2026 BRICS Summit, has placed India's vision of a multipolar digital economy at the heart of the bloc's development agenda — one built on sovereign national systems that remain domestically controlled yet increasingly interoperable across borders. The declaration's digital provisions, analysed in a piece published by Modern Diplomacy authored by Tuhu Nugraha, signal a significant moment in how emerging economies are beginning to frame their technological futures.

What the Declaration Commits To

The declaration formally recognised sovereign digital ecosystems, interoperable Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), and artificial intelligence (AI) as pillars of the BRICS development framework. It welcomed work on a BRICS DPI repository and pilot projects, while recognising the Digital BRICS Forum and the Focus Group on Digital Public Infrastructure as institutional anchors for future cooperation.

The core principle is coordination without surrender of control. As the analysis notes, national payment rails, digital credentials, and data-sharing systems can be made interoperable through common standards and interfaces — without collapsing into a single supranational database or architecture.

India's DPI Model at the Centre

India's Digital Public Infrastructure is most visibly represented by Aadhaar, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), DigiLocker, and consent-based data-sharing frameworks. These systems are nationally governed while allowing governments and private firms to build services on top — a layered model that India has increasingly promoted in its diplomacy.

According to reports, India has signed India Stack and DPI cooperation agreements with 24 countries, spanning digital identity, payments, data exchange, and public service delivery. Notably, the stated objective is cooperation on architecture and design principles rather than the export of finished products — a distinction that has won traction among nations wary of technological dependency.

Why BRICS Provides a Unique Platform

India first gave DPI broad multilateral visibility during its 2023 G20 presidency. BRICS presents a different and arguably more complex arena. The grouping brings together economies seeking greater influence for the Global South, yet they differ sharply in political systems, currencies, technological capabilities, and relationships with both Washington and Beijing.

That heterogeneity makes deep harmonisation difficult — but it makes interoperability more valuable. National systems can remain architecturally distinct while common standards allow them to communicate. The analysis points to payments as the clearest illustration, but notes the logic extends further: digital credentials potentially becoming verifiable across jurisdictions, and trusted data flowing through agreed governance arrangements.

India's Strategic Autonomy Gets a Digital Expression

The article argues this architecture fits India's geopolitical position unusually well. China remains simultaneously a neighbour, major economic partner, strategic competitor, and fellow BRICS member. India has, meanwhile, deepened technology and security cooperation with the United States while preserving its longstanding preference for strategic autonomy.

An interoperable digital architecture, the analysis suggests, gives infrastructural expression to that balancing instinct — allowing India to retain control over critical national systems, work across competing technology ecosystems, and maintain optionality as geopolitical conditions shift.

Relevance for the Broader Global South

The model may carry even greater relevance for emerging economies with fewer technological resources. Most Global South nations will continue depending on foreign cloud providers, semiconductors, AI models, and telecom equipment. As the analysis notes, a single economy may simultaneously use American cloud services, Chinese hardware, Japanese or Korean industrial systems, Indian-inspired DPI, European regulatory standards, and locally developed applications. A framework of interoperability without dependence offers a practical path through that reality.

With the New Delhi Declaration now adopted, the focus shifts to implementation — whether the BRICS DPI repository, the pilot projects, and the Digital BRICS Forum can translate a compelling architecture into working infrastructure across some of the world's most consequential economies.