Understanding DPI
The 21st century has been aptly dubbed as the “century of digital advancements” owing to its transformative impact on the global economy. One such vital aspect of the digital economy is digital public infrastructure (DPI). DPI can be defined as a comprehensive framework and network of digital technologies, standards, governance mechanisms, and a community of market players, designed to facilitate the efficient delivery of public services and economic opportunities to a nation’s residents. Although DPI is an evolving and novel concept, the UNDP terms it as a means to many ends and agrees that it is a combination of (i) networked open technology standards built for public interest, (ii) enabling governance, and (iii) a community of innovative and competitive market players working to drive innovation, especially across public programmes.
DPI presents a novel approach to advancing large-scale systems’ digitization, offering economies the means to efficiently deliver economic opportunities and essential social services to their citizens. DPI can be likened to the physical road or railway network, creating a digital framework that connects people and provides access to a wide array of goods and services. It, in essence, acts as a regulatory and technological layer that ensures consistency in routine digital tasks. It sets the standards and specifications for activities such as instant digital transactions and national digital ID authentication, offering a uniform environment for these processes while allowing open modules for the creation of new applications and digital services. Unlike digital public goods (DPGs) that address specific technical challenges, DPI primarily focuses on stimulating innovation by establishing essential interoperability.
DPI in India
In recent years, India has been known to make remarkable strides in building a strong and robust DPI through initiatives like the ‘JAM trinity’ – Jan Dhan, Aadhaar, and Mobile. The first pillar, the Jan Dhan financial inclusion initiative, widens access to bank accounts and financial services. There are currently around 500 million Jan Dhan Accounts. Aadhar, the second pillar of this Trinity, is related to citizen identities. Over 1.38 billion Indians have unique digitally verifiable identities — the largest national roll-out globally. The linking of bank accounts with Aadhaar numbers has served as a key enabler for channelling government benefits electronically. India’s DPI has proven to provide resilient crisis response, as seen during the initial COVID-19 lockdowns, when emergency payments were made to around 300 million people, including more than 200 million women. As per TRAI’s recent figures, India has around 1.15 billion wireless subscriptions, serving as an effective information exchange platform, especially in rural areas. The abundant access to mobile technology has eased digital payments and according to National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) data, approximately 83.75 billion transactions worth INR 139.25 trillion were conducted using UPI in calendar in FY 2022-23. Additionally, India’s COVID vaccination drive was completely powered through the COWIN digital portal administering around 2.2 billion vaccines. This indicates that a strong DPI enables last mile coverage in essential public services.
India’s Global Leadership
India has not only built a strong DPI for itself but has emerged as a formidable player on the global stage when it comes to shaping and leading the future of DPI. India, during its G20 Presidency, this year made significant contributions to the DPI discourse and deliberations. This resulted in the first ever instance of 19 member states providing a working definition for it, and detailed principles and approaches that might be considered in its development and deployment. The DPI framework proposed by India serves as a voluntary guideline, offering insights into the elements that make up a good DPI. It focuses on “building blocks” that are “reusable,” open-source, and sometimes proprietary, recognizing the importance of both private and public sectors in DPI development. The impact of this achievement extends far beyond the G20. India’s strategy of running parallel negotiations, both within the G20 process and bilaterally with key trading partners, materialised into significant success. It led to the inclusion of DPI in joint statements and policy charters with the US, France, UK and the European Union.
The launch of India Stack is a commendable step towards global partnerships as this is the first global effort towards sharing principles, technologies, and functionality in the DPI domain without any proprietary technology or intellectual property which would preclude their implementation in any other country. India Stack refers to a collection of open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and digital public resources designed to facilitate essential economic functions such as identity verification, data sharing, and financial transactions on a massive scale. Despite its origin and name, India Stack’s applicability extends to any nation, whether developed or emerging. It is important to note that India’s technology, tools, and policies in these domains received significant global recognition during this year’s G20 summit, resulting in several countries taking inspiration from the India Stack to develop strong DPI in their country. Around 7 countries have already signed MoUs with India in this regard. Notably, Nandan Nilekani, chairman of Infosys and the founder chairman of the Aadhaar project, mentioned during the B20 summit that a global coalition of multilateral organisations including the World Bank and the IMF, led by the Indian government will take India’s DPI model to 50 countries in the next five years.
The Road Ahead
DPI stands out as a transformative framework and network that holds the potential to redefine not just the digital economy but all sectors of economy, trade, governance, and public services delivery. In the global context, India has emerged as a leader in the development of DPI and India’s DPI landscape has not only benefited its citizens but has also influenced the global approach to digital transformation. Moreover, India’s efforts in shaping the future of DPI have been particularly significant. By providing guidelines, frameworks, and insights into building a strong DPI, India has fostered global partnerships and collaborations. As we advance our progress in the overall development of the digital economy, the journey to improve DPI continues. The global coalition led by India, comprising multilateral organisations like the World Bank and the IMF, is set to expand India’s DPI model to several countries in the coming years. The road ahead necessitates further collaboration, innovation, and shared infrastructure development to ensure that the benefits of digital advancements reach all corners of the world, ensuring economic growth for all parties involved.