India’s digital identity landscape has advanced significantly in recent years. Today, Aadhaar serves as a foundational layer for digital public infrastructure and has seen widespread use in government-to-person (G2P) transfers and other services. Yet, its adoption for offline authentication and face authentication remains limited. Furthermore, fragmented ecosystem engagement, complex user experiences, and a lack of actionable data insights have hindered progress. These challenges restrict the UIDAI’s ability to adapt to evolving user needs and use emerging technologies.

To support the next phase of Aadhaar’s evolution, the UIDAI engaged MSC to identify innovative use cases, strengthen citizen-centric service delivery, and integrate global lessons to enhance Aadhaar’s impact and reach.

MSC provided strategic advisory and research support across several key areas. The team developed the strategy for the UIDAI’s Innovation Sandbox and supported its implementation to promote innovation in authentication and e-KYC use cases. MSC conducted a comprehensive assessment of Aadhaar’s offline usage, public awareness, policy environment, and operational challenges. In addition, MSC reviewed grievance management mechanisms and citizen engagement channels to identify areas for improvement.

The project included a study of the authentication ecosystem, which included Authentication User Agencies (AUA) and Authentication Service Agencies (ASA), to identify pain points in onboarding, transaction processes, and policy compliance. MSC also analyzed Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) delivery to understand user experience and governance practices, and benchmarked the Aadhaar system against global digital ID systems.

The project contributed to significant improvements in Aadhaar usage and innovation. Aadhaar-based face authentication transactions increased fourfold and reached more than 154 million monthly authentications by May 2025. The number of entities using Aadhaar or e-KYC rose by 10%, which added approximately 550 new users. The UIDAI launched the Innovation Sandbox and SDK BioChallenge, which created a platform for ecosystem players to test and benchmark new Aadhaar-based solutions.

The UIDAI also began publishing Aadhaar-related datasets on the Open Government Data Portal to support global research. As part of its global engagement strategy, the UIDAI collaborated with 10+ countries and institutions, which included Tanzania, South Africa, ID4Africa, and MOSIP, to share lessons and insights from Aadhaar.

The Unique Identification Authority of India and the Gates Foundation​ commissioned the project.

India’s expanding digital public infrastructure has been built around Aadhaar as a foundational ID. While Aadhaar-based fingerprint and iris authentication have enabled widespread access to services, they also face challenges in accuracy, usability, and accessibility, particularly for the elderly, manual laborers, and persons with disabilities. 

Such challenges have created a strong case for alternative and inclusive authentication mechanisms that ensure continuity of access for all without compromising security or consent. In this context, face authentication offers a nonintrusive, contactless, and device-agnostic alternative that can enhance both user convenience and system resilience.

MSC supported the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to showcase the growing need for face authentication and highlight its role in the ecosystem. We helped the UIDAI develop a strategic playbook titled Unlocking Face Authentication. MSC conducted extensive stakeholder consultations across sectors, engaging with the UIDAI, banks, financial institutions, telecom companies, government agencies, and technology service providers, to shape the insights and recommendations for the playbook. We also mapped end-to-end workflows to integrate Aadhaar-based face authentication into existing service delivery models across key domains, such as financial services, telecom, governance, and social protection.

We captured sector-specific challenges and enablers, developed process integration blueprints, and identified high-impact use cases where face authentication could improve user experience, particularly for the elderly, differently-abled, and digitally underserved populations. 

This engagement reflected MSC’s deep expertise in digital ID systems, inclusive service design, and public infrastructure enablement, and our capacity to translate complex technology into inclusive, policy-aligned frameworks that can catalyze real-world impact at scale. The playbook also contributed to positioning face authentication as a scalable and interoperable solution within India’s broader digital identity stack—one that now supports 55 million+ transactions monthly. 

The Gates Foundation commissioned the project.

Food, fuel, and fertilizer (FFF) subsidies in India account for 6–7% of the total budget and nearly half of social sector spending. MSC has shaped, optimized, and evaluated these major subsidy programs through close partnerships with key ministries and agencies. MSC’s expertise spans the full policy cycle, from initial design and pilot testing to large-scale implementation, ongoing assessment, and evidence-based refinement. 

Fertilizers 

MSC was instrumental in assisting the NITI Aayog and the Department of Fertilizers in designing and rolling out India’s Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) system, which began with pilots in Andhra Pradesh and expanded nationwide. MSC provided end-to-end support, which included policy design, rapid evaluations, and implementation guidance. Their evidence-based recommendations led to further reforms such as piloting direct cash transfers (DCT) to farmers, advocating for a comprehensive farmer database, and promoting soil health initiatives for more efficient fertilizer use. 

Food 

Since 2014, MSC has been a key advisor to the Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD), driving the digital transformation of the Public Distribution System (PDS). The work included technical assistance to the end-to-end computerization—digitizing beneficiary databases, supply chains, and automating fair price shops. Further, MSC formulated a technical support unit (TSU) at DFPD in 2020 to continue providing technical support to the department’s initiatives. MSC supported pilots for transitioning from in-kind food distribution to cash transfers and played a crucial role in the design and implementation of the One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) initiative, which enabled benefit portability for migrant workers. 

MSC spearheaded the rice fortification program, supporting the DFPD from initial pilots in 2020 to full-scale implementation. The insights strengthened the supply chain and developed digital solutions to enhance transparency and efficiency in rice fortification and quality control. MSC has also supported the DFPD in advancing nutrition security by contributing to the revision of Schedule II of the National Food Security Act (NFSA). This revision aimed to more precisely define the macro- and micronutrient requirements for food provided under the three key food security programs, tailored to the needs of specific beneficiary groups such as pregnant and lactating women, children under five, school-going children, and adolescent girls. MSC also played a pivotal role in conceptualizing and piloting the Jan Poshan Kendra to transform 60 fair price shops into nutrition hubs across four states. 

The Gates Foundation commissioned the project. 

MSC has worked in close partnership with the Ministry of Women Empowerment and Child Protection (MoWECP), Government of Indonesia, to advance gender-responsive policy thinking and action. Since 2022, MSC has supported the Ministry’s engagement with the G20 process to help shape impactful recommendations that promote women’s participation in the digital economy, entrepreneurship, and the future of work. 

MSC partnered with Airtel Payments Bank (APB) to help diversify its offerings at agent points beyond traditional cash-in and cash-out (CICO) transactions. Through this partnership, we sought to scale the uptake of Suraksha, a bundled product that combines a digital savings account with an embedded insurance cover. We worked to strengthen APB’s last-mile communication and marketing ecosystem to boost agent confidence, build customer trust, and drive product adoption.

A risk of limited product understanding and mis-selling persists among rural and peri-urban agents with whom APB works. MSC sought to overcome these risks and designed a behaviorally informed communication toolbox for APB. This included culturally nuanced posters, banners, and localized pitch templates. We also developed WhatsApp-ready creatives, audio-visual content, and easy-to-explain scripts to support agents to engage customers proactively and address common concerns around savings and insurance. Our team used insights from rapid market studies to advise APB on customer persona-based targeting and nudging strategies across the marketing funnel, from awareness to activation.

These interventions translated into a 31-fold increase in agents who actively sold Suraksha, from 4,023 in May 2023 to more than 124,000 by March 2025. At the same time, customer engagement with Suraksha increased 138 times, from fewer than 15,000 to more than 2 million subscribers. As a result, Suraksha emerged as APB’s flagship product. It earned a position in the market as a “safe second savings account” and enhanced both agent viability and enterprise profitability.

The Gates Foundation commissioned this project.

 

As part of its strategic engagement with the Government of Indonesia, MSC supported BAPPENAS in developing a policy roadmap to accelerate the country’s blue food economy. The study examined the intersection of nutrition, environmental sustainability, small-scale fisheries, value addition, post-harvest loss reduction, and social equity to define a coherent, actionable framework for system transformation. 

An integrated approach to blue food systems transformation 

MSC’s analysis highlighted how these pillars support Indonesia’s broader development priorities—linking nutrition security with climate-smart livelihoods, and sustainable fisheries with inclusive value chains. The roadmap provided actionable recommendations across regulatory reform, investment priorities, and institutional coordination to operationalize Indonesia’s vision for a resilient and just blue food economy. 

Strategic support to BAPPENAS 

Through this collaboration, MSC contributed technical expertise, global best practices, and locally grounded diagnostics to help BAPPENAS define its long-term agenda for aquatic food system transformation. The roadmap laid a foundational evidence base for future inter-ministerial coordination and donor alignment and supports Indonesia’s global leadership in promoting nature-positive and nutrition-sensitive food systems. MSC continues working closely with national stakeholders to translate the blue food agenda into on-ground action, integrating it with school meals, public procurement, and coastal development programs that prioritize people and the planet.