Razorpay’s senior vice president of engineering, Prabhu Ram, emphasized the importance of planning for failures beyond a company’s own technology stack to build reliable digital payment systems at India’s scale. Speaking at Inc42’s inaugural ‘The CTO Summit 2026’, Ram highlighted that disruptions can arise not only within internal systems but also from external infrastructure layers that companies do not control.
During the panel titled ‘The Architecture Of 10X: Engineering For India’s Next Scale Curve’, moderated by Jesper Ludolph of Exfinity Venture Partners, Ram explained that companies must design systems assuming failures can occur in any of the seven layers of technology, including those operated by other players. He contrasted this with companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon, which have greater control by owning critical components in-house, simplifying supply chain management.
Ram’s remarks underscore the unique challenges faced by Indian digital service providers, where consumer expectations demand seamless experiences such as instant UPI payments or hassle-free ticket bookings. The need to ensure reliability despite dependencies on external infrastructure layers differentiates India’s scale demands from other markets. This approach is critical for maintaining trust and operational continuity in India’s rapidly growing digital economy.
The CTO Summit 2026 featured other industry leaders including Kuku CTO Vikas Goyal, BookMyShow’s Noel Curtis, and Oracle’s Palanivel Saravanan, who joined Ram in discussing engineering strategies to support India’s next phase of digital scale, highlighting the sector’s focus on robust architecture amid complex infrastructure dependencies.