In the post-UPI world, Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani firmly believes that a new revolution is cooking. Looking greatly upon the future of the energy sector with high hopes, the Aadhaar co-creator proclaimed that one day energy may be easily traded between people, replicating the seamless UPI transfer process.

“The next UPI is energy,” Nandan Nilekani told the audience at the Arkam Annual Meet 2025. Sharing his address to X, he tweeted, “Millions of small producers will participate in the Digital Energy Grid (DEG).”

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As seen in the video, the architect of Indian’s Digital Public Infrastructure who’s undoubtedly played a pivotal role in shaping the country’s digital revolution, builds a wide-ranging, hefty argument on how to accelerate India’s economic transformation. Nandan Nilekani continues to deliver more thought-provoking arguments throughout the keynote session.

How energy will become the ‘next UPI’?

“Now we are used to buying energy in small amounts,” he added. “People buy some coal and use it everyday. When you buy an LPG cylinder, you’re buying a packetised energy. But electricity, we have always through of coming from the grid. Or we buy a generator because we don’t get electricity… and burn some oil.”

Jumping to his vision of what’s to come, he continued, “But the future is going to be… going to millions of small producers of energy. Every home will be an energy producer because they have rooftop solar. Every home will be an energy storer because they have EV battery.

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“So, every home is a Producer of energy, Seller of energy, Buyer of energy, and these trades may not be with the grid, they may be with your neighbour. So, you’re going to buy and sell energy like UPI. That means you’re going to create millions of energy entrepreneurs who will all invest in producing small amount of energy and selling it to each other.”

And that is how and why Nandan Nilekani believes that energy will “create its own set of entrepreneurs.” If the Infosys co-founder’s vision comes to life, we may see a revision of our perspectives and how things work in our day-to-day.

Less than a decade ago, no one would’ve imagined how high UPI would take flight. Now, we can’t imagine the digital space without it. In addition to laying out the framework for energy sector’s position in the grand scheme of things, Nilekani emphasised four key “unlocks: for India’s growth in the face of numerous challenges like income inequality, low productivity and regional imbalances: technology, capital, entrepreneurship and formalisation.