Digital Public Infrastructure, Fintech Governance, and Inclusive Market Transformation: Comparative Institutional Evidence from India’s UPI and Brazil’s Pix

Abstract

This article examines how digital public infrastructure reshapes fintech governance, business systems, market inclusion, and sustainable socio-economic development in emerging digital economies. Using a comparative institutional case study of India’s Unified Payments Interface and Brazil’s Pix, the study argues that instant-payment systems are not merely technological innovations but institutional infrastructures that reorganize market participation, financial intermediation, state capacity, consumer trust, and business formalization. India and Brazil are selected because both have built large-scale, interoperable, low-cost payment infrastructures, yet their governance models differ substantially. India’s UPI is embedded in a layered digital public infrastructure architecture involving digital identity, bank account expansion, mobile connectivity, and public-private payment applications. Brazil’s Pix is centrally operated and regulated by the Central Bank of Brazil as a payment infrastructure designed to increase competition, reduce transaction costs, and expand inclusion. The comparison shows that digital financial transformation generates inclusive economic value when interoperability, public governance, private innovation, regulatory trust, and user protection are institutionally aligned. However, both cases also reveal risks of platform concentration, fraud, exclusion through digital divides, data governance weaknesses, and uneven business capability diffusion. The article contributes to international business, economic governance, fintech, and development policy literature by developing theoretical propositions on institutional interoperability, market trust, inclusive fintech ecosystems, and sustainable digital development.