Examine the role of Digital Public Infrastructure and trade facilitation reforms in strengthening India's position in multilateral trade forums.

The WTO's Trade Policy Review is a transparency mechanism under which members' trade regimes are periodically examined [1]. India's Eighth TPR, concluded in Geneva on 23 July 2026, saw members explicitly commend its Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and customs modernisation [1] — showing that domestic governance reform has become a source of negotiating credibility abroad.

How DPI strengthens India's standing

• Credibility through demonstration: members highlighted India's DPI achievements alongside its innovation and startup ecosystem, converting a domestic model into diplomatic capital [1].
• Transparency: digital rails allow verifiable, real-time disclosure of procedures — directly serving the TPR's aim of enhancing transparency and adherence to WTO rules [1].
• Digital economy agenda: the India AI Mission (2024) signals capacity in emerging digital technologies, positioning India in rule-making on data and digital trade rather than as a rule-taker [2].

How trade facilitation reforms strengthen it

• Lower transaction costs: modernised customs and trade facilitation processes were cited by India as evidence of reform delivery [1].
• MSME inclusion: members noted India's efforts to integrate MSMEs into global value chains, giving weight to India's development-focused positions [1].
• Structural gains: India's trade-to-GDP ratio stood at about 45% in FY 2024-25, above the pre-pandemic trend, with a services surplus of 4.8% of GDP partly offsetting the goods deficit [2].

Limits to note

• These reforms do not resolve the core contests — agricultural tariffs and industrial protection defended on developmental grounds [1] — and India remains a lower-middle-income economy with per capita GDP near USD 2,671 [2].

DPI and facilitation reforms thus function less as bargaining chips than as proof of good-faith engagement, which India reinforced through steps such as accepting the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies [1]. Sustaining this requires deepening last-mile digital adoption by MSMEs and exporters. Coupled with the Viksit Bharat 2047 vision [2], such reform-backed credibility can let India speak both as a large developing economy and as a constructive architect of multilateral trade rules.