State of DPI in India 2026

Education is fundamentally organised around the learner's lifelong journey rather than a single institution or service provider. This chapter examines India's Education DPI ecosystem through an ecosystem perspective—mapping learners, providers, credentialing bodies, and regulators, analyzing core building blocks in use (APAAR, Academic Bank of Credits, DIKSHA, NDEAR), documenting state-level trajectories across Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Bihar, and Gujarat, and evaluating the maturity and road ahead for interoperable learning rails.

• Section 01 pp. 110–112

  Mapping the Education Ecosystem

  Traces how learners, schools, higher education institutions, skilling providers, assessment boards, and regulatory bodies (MoE, UGC, AICTE, NCERT) interact across fragmented institutional boundaries.

• Section 02 pp. 113–121

  DPIs in Use: Identity, Credits, Content & Skilling

  Analyzes operational building blocks across five functional layers: Learner Identity & Registries (APAAR, UDISE+, AISHE), Academic Credits & Credentialing (ABC, DigiLocker), Content Delivery (DIKSHA, SWAYAM), Skilling-to-Work linkages, and Educational Governance.

• Section 03 pp. 122–124

  States' Journey to DPI in Education

  Comparative field study of state-level adoption and federated integration across Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Bihar, and Gujarat.

• Section 04 pp. 124–134

  Impact, Maturity Assessment & The Road Ahead

  Evaluates how portable learner identities, flexible credit pathways, and verifiable credentials shift the ecosystem toward lifelong learning, concluding with a sector-wide DPI maturity assessment.

Bhardwaj, K. (2026). State of DPI in Education. In The State of DPI in India 2026 (2nd ed., pp. 109–134). Center for Digital Public Goods (CDPG), Indian Institute of Management Bangalore.

@incollection{bhardwaj2026statedpi,
  title={State of DPI in Education},
  author={Bhardwaj, Keshav},
  booktitle={The State of DPI in India 2026},
  edition={Second},
  pages={109--134},
  publisher={Center for Digital Public Goods (CDPG), Indian Institute of Management Bangalore},
  year={2026},
  month={sep},
  url={https://www.iimb.ac.in/cdpg/State-India-DPI-Report-2026/}
}