
Nepalese migrants in India
by Rohan Pai, Sakhi Shah, Sameer Bajaj, Amrita Nanda, Supratik Mitra and Kavya Narayanan
The India–Nepal migration corridor, long defined by open borders and deep cultural ties, is being transformed by digital public infrastructure (DPI). Our analysis reveals the gaps between the promise of the Indo-Nepal Treaty of seamless integration, while Nepali migrants in India encounter a different reality: barriers to Aadhaar, uneven access to welfare, and hurdles in remittance and digital services. These gaps reveal how technologies designed for inclusion can, in practice, produce new exclusions and raise urgent questions about equity, governance, and the future of cross-border mobility.
Read our case study here
© 2026 Aapti Institute. All rights reserved.