Sri Lanka is on track to select the Master System Integrator for its Unified Digital Identity (SL-UDI) program by the end of March 2026, with Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Protean e-Gov Technologies, RailTel, and Bharat Electronics competing for the contract.
The five firms were pre-qualified by India’s National Institute for Smart Government (NISG), which is managing the procurement under tender reference NISG/SLUDI-2025. Pre-qualification results were published in October 2025, and all five have now advanced to the techno-commercial evaluation stage.
Officials from Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Digital Economy confirmed the expected timeline in statements during the February 15-17 window. Secretary Waruna Sri Dhanapala and Deputy Minister Eranga Weeraratne were among those cited. The program is financed through an Indian government grant, with a total value of approximately LKR 10.4 billion (roughly USD 34 million).
Once the MSI is selected, implementation is expected to begin in April 2026, with the first digital IDs targeted for issuance in Q3 2026. The SL-UDI system is built on the MOSIP open-source identity platform and will be hosted on government cloud infrastructure secured through the parallel LGC 2.5 procurement completed in October 2025.
Sri Lanka’s existing National Identity Card system, including legacy Thales-era card infrastructure, will remain valid during a three to five year transition period before the new e-Locker digital credential framework fully replaces it.
The program represents one of the most significant MOSIP deployments currently in procurement, and the Indian vendor shortlist underscores New Delhi’s growing role in shaping digital identity infrastructure across South Asia through tied grant financing and technical architecture.
Sources: NISG SL-UDI Program, NISG Pre-Qualification Results Notice, Sri Lanka Ministry of Digital Economy
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By the Mobile ID World Editorial Team
