‘Energy is the next UPI’: Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani eyes next BIG revolution in India

IT major Infosys’ co-founder and the creator of Aadhaar in India, Nandan Nilekani, shared a video of him speaking at the Arkam Annual Meet 2025 in Bengaluru. At the event, Nilekani shared his take on how energy is India’s “next UPI” level revolution opportunity in the future.

“Energy is the next UPI! Millions of small producers will participate in the Digital Energy Grid (DEG),” said Nilekani in his social media post on platform X on March 28.

Nilekani highlighted people’s purchase patterns as they buy and use energy for their daily activities, like cooking using an LPG cylinder, a form of “packetized energy.”

“But electricity we have always thought of as something coming from the grid, or we buy a generator because we don’t get electricity and burn some oil,” he said.

Future of ‘Energy’

The IT firm co-founder Nandan Nilekani also focused on the emergence of small energy producers at every home through different methods of renewable energy, such as solar or electric vehicles (EVs), which is likely to help bring about this revolution.

“The future is going to be millions of small producers of energy. Every home will be an energy producer because they have rooftop solar. Every home will be energy stored because they have an EV battery,” Nilekani said at the event.

In his speech at the summit, Nilekani also shared his vision for India where millions of people will invest in producing small amounts of energy and trade it with each other, which will, in turn, give rise to a new set of ‘energy’ entrepreneurs in the nation.

“So, every home is a producer of energy, a seller of energy, and a buyer of energy. And these trades may not be with the grid. They may be with their neighbour. So you are going to buy and sell energy like UPI,” he said.

Netizens React

Some people on the social media platform X supported Nilekani vision while others questioned the implementation and challenges aspect of the theory.

“This could indeed be the UPI moment for power distribution! With advances in smart grids, battery storage, and blockchain-based energy trading, small producers will gain more control and monetization opportunities. Exciting times ahead!” said a social media user named Manu Jemini responding to the post.

Others like Nithin Gupta lauded that similar to how UPI transformed finance in India, the DEG has the potential to democratize energy. “Brilliant vision! Just like UPI transformed finance, DEG has the potential to democratize energy. Empowering small producers will be a game-changer for India’s energy independence,” he said.

Another social media user named Nate Landman, who is an MIT graduate, questioned the vision and asked if everyone turns out to be the seller who will be the buyer of energy in the market.

“If every home is a seller of energy, who is the buyer of energy? Energy is fungible, isn’t it? I suppose you could be a buyer at a given price and a seller at another price, if that’s what you meant” he said in his response to the social media post.

Who is Nandan Nilekani?

Nandan Nilekani is the co-founder and non-executive chairman of Infosys Technologies Ltd. He was also the founding chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) in the rank of Cabinet Minister between the years 2009-2014.

In January 2023, Nilekani was appointed as the co-chair for the “G20 Task Force on Digital Public Infrastructure for Economic Transformation, Financial Inclusion, and Development,” according to the official data collected from the Infosys website.