Building a National Digital Trust Architecture for India: From Digital Identity and Data Exchange to Federated Institutional Trust

Abstract India has built digital capabilities at population scale across identity, documents, payments and regulated data sharing, and a National Data Governance framework approved in May 2026 adds a coordinating layer for government data sharing. A question that these systems leave open is how one authorised institution can rely on a verified assertion issued by another institution, for a defined purpose, without requiring the citizen to reproduce the underlying evidence each time. This working paper proposes a National Digital Trust Architecture based on federated institutional trust. Using document analysis of Indian statutes, rules and platform terms, and a comparative review of NIST federation guidance, W3C Verifiable Credentials 2.0, the European digital identity framework, Estonia’s X-tee and the Trust Over IP registry work, it distinguishes identity, credential, assertion, trust and authorisation. It then sets out a six-layer architecture, an explicit Trust Decision, a Trusted Issuer Registry formed by federating existing Indian directories, lifecycle-based Trust Assurance, a default holder-mediated presentation model, a sketch of liability and redress allocation tied to the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, and a phased implementation and evaluation plan with baselines. Data remain with the institutions legally responsible for them, and verified assertions travel where reliance is lawful. The paper is conceptual and offers no empirical test. It identifies the legal instrument, registry governance and pilot evidence as the principal open questions.