The Indian Government released the latest version of its National Education Policy (NEP) on 31 July 2020 -- a document last revised in 1986. The Early Childhood Education (ECE) section of this new policy urges a Developmentally Appropriate Practices (DAP) approach incorporating 'play-based, activity-based, and discovery-based learning' (NEP [2020]. "Ministry of Human Resource Development." Government of India. New Delhi, India, 6). The purpose of this article is to examine the policy's core recommendations for early childhood education, analyse the language and content borrowed from the global ECE discourse and identify the constraints posed by the local realities of the Indian school system.