Decoding the Indian data governance model: Relooking at Aadhaar
Anjana Sasi · Social Sciences & Humanities Open · 2025
In its recently adorned G20 presidency, India showcased its Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) model to the world. It consists of three primary layers: 1. The identity layer that is the Aadhaar with the Biometric Identity System, 2. The cashless layer, the Unified Payments Interface and 3. The Data Empowerment Architecture. These three and the suite of APIs developed for interoperability were branded together as the India Stack. Due to the recent attempt by India to advance a global consensus on developing governance solutions using digital technologies, there has been some scholarly attention on the policy and institutional mechanisms surrounding India's data governance. This article identifies that the Aadhaar India's Biometric Identity system may have been vital in evolving India's Digital Public Infrastructure and dictating India's evolving model of data governance. The study addresses critical research gaps in the current academic literature, such as the lack of a detailed examination of the Aadhaar project, India's biometric identity project as steering the course of India's data governance model and its implications for India's data strategy in terms of sovereignty. This article looks at the early discussions surrounding Aadhaar and describes how it was characterised as a social security mechanism. However, looking at the bigger picture, Aadhaar paved the way for building a data governance model for India. In the context of Digital Public Infrastructure, the Aadhaar Act 2016 is revisited in this article along with the Aadhaar architecture. For this purpose, the article will trace the evolution of Aadhaar in India, trace the Aadhaar legal framework and compare it with the Aadhaar Architecture, and analyse the Aadhaar judgment in light of the open API-based governance system. Finally, the article analyses biometric identity systems in Estonia and Brazil to identify how it affects their data governance model. The article seeks to answer the central question of whether the Aadhaar Data Architecture read with the Aadhaar legal regime would give rise to a specific model of Data Governance for India. The article identifies the central role that Aadhaar has played in translating India's data regulation through technology, laws, and institutional mechanisms to pursue a robust model of data governance reflecting data nationalism.