Mila T. Samdub researches the aesthetics and political economy of digital infrastructure in India. He is a Visiting Fellow at the Information Society Project at Yale Law School, a CyberBRICS Fellow at the Center for Technology and Society, Fundacao Getulio Vargas, and an Open Future Fellow.

October 16, 2025

Analysis

The State and Software Capital

Digital public infrastructure and the promise of India’s online consumer market

The Aadhaar digital identification project was launched in 2009 with the promise of eradicating corruption. Over 1.3 billion Indians today hold Aadhaar numbers, making it the world’s largest biometric ID program. Aadhaar has transformed not only state-citizen relations, but also…