It’s a method that Arvind Gupta, who heads the Digital India Foundation in New Delhi, calls a “bottom-up” approach: “Unlike the Googles and Microsofts of the world, India took it to the next level by building trust in technology with digital public infrastructure,” he says.

The DPDP Act provides mechanisms to enforce data protection standards, consent management systems and penalties to hold companies accountable for any user privacy breaches. 

Elements of the India Stack, a government push and AI startups can all play key roles in India’s ascent on the sophistication curve of this red-hot field of technology.