“Beyond broad pledges: Bharat’s tech sovereignty push in Africa and ASEAN”, First Post, Aug 08, 2026.

“The Union government announced last week in Lok Sabha that it had signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with 24 countries marking a significant shift in its foreign policy, moving from broad digital cooperation pledges to tangible technology exports.

By leveraging its domestic success with the “India Stack”, the government is attempting to establish “global digital commons” through Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) leveraging its “Modular Open Source Identity Platform (MOSIP)”.

Expanding India’s digital diplomacy from Africa to Southeast Asia introduces a completely different geopolitical and economic dynamic. While Africa represents a landscape where India is helping build foundational infrastructure, Southeast Asia is a highly digitized, rapidly growing market.

The Africa Focus: Building Foundational DPI

Focus Africa in India’s digital diplomacy marks a pivot from traditional capacity-building to proactive technological integration. It was during India’s 2023 G20 Presidency, which enshrined DPI in the New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration as a global standard, that Africa witnessed a renewed attention. Africa is now the epicentre of India’s DPI deployment marking a reinforcement of India’s global south push…………….”

Read the full article at First Post.