New Delhi, India’s Department of Posts has unveiled draft legislation to create a nationwide, interoperable digital addressing platform modelled closely on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), in the latest expansion of the country’s digital public infrastructure stack.
Known as DHRUVA (Digital Hub for Reference and Unique Virtual Address), the proposed system would allow individuals to replace conventional textual addresses with short, memorable identifiers resembling e-mail or UPI handles — for example, “ram.sharma@home” or “priya@delhi” — that serve as secure proxies for a full physical address.
Under the scheme, users could grant e-commerce, logistics or gig-economy platforms temporary, consent-based access to their precise location without repeatedly entering lengthy address details. Access would automatically expire unless explicitly renewed, mirroring the revocable permissions architecture used in account-aggregator frameworks.
A senior official familiar with the initiative told the Financial Times that the department intends to establish a not-for-profit Section 8 company, governed by multiple stakeholders but under government oversight, to operate the platform. The structure is deliberately analogous to the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the umbrella body that runs UPI.
The foundation of DHRUVA is DIGIPIN, a ten-character alphanumeric code that encodes latitude and longitude to pinpoint locations within a roughly 14-square-metre area. Launched earlier this year and already open-sourced, DIGIPIN provides the granular geographic precision required in rural areas or densely packed urban localities where traditional addresses are ambiguous or non-existent. The system can theoretically generate more than 228bn unique codes across Indian territory.
Participation by private companies would be voluntary, but officials believe the convenience for consumers and operational efficiencies for delivery and ride-hailing platforms will drive rapid adoption, much as UPI achieved near-universal penetration within a few years of its 2016 launch.
The draft amendment to the Indian Post Office Act, 2023, released this week, is now open for public consultation. If enacted, DHRUVA would mark another pillar in India’s ambitious DPI ecosystem, sitting alongside UPI, Aadhaar, the account aggregator framework and the fast-emerging ONDC e-commerce protocol.
Industry executives said the move could significantly reduce address-related friction in last-mile logistics, a persistent pain point that contributes to high return rates and delivery costs in Indian e-commerce.
