EU-India Digital ID Interoperability Workshop

On 5 June in New Delhi, the final workshop of the GIZ-commissioned feasibility study on interoperability between the EU Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet ecosystem and India’s digital identity systems brought together stakeholders to review findings and explore the path forward.

Key discussion areas included the UIDAI sandbox — which supports Aadhaar VC usage, authentication, QR-code interactions, and high-assurance data sharing — though access currently remains restricted to India and would require ministerial approval to open internationally. Trust list interoperability emerged as a critical unresolved issue, with Aadhaar and DigiLocker currently maintaining separate lists and a federated model potentially required for cross-border use.

On the technical side, Aadhaar VC technology supports JSON-LD, SD-JWT, and mDoc formats, while the DC API was flagged as a potential interoperability mechanism worth exploring further.

Candidate use cases discussed spanned trade facilitation and trade finance, talent and student mobility, B2B payments, power of attorney and delegation, air travel, and healthcare — with cross-border credential verification and trust architecture identified as foundational prerequisites across all sectors.

The project now moves toward a sandbox-pilot-live deployment roadmap, with interest in trilateral and broader DPI cooperation models for future phases.