India Leverages Digital Public Infrastructure to Change the Face of Governance

The recent endorsement by the G20 Ministers plus the discourse from EkStep Foundation were further feathers in India’s DPI cap 

Rajneesh De, Consulting Editor, APAC News Network

“A single step of a man, a giant leap for mankind.” These were the immortal words of Neil Armstrong after landing on moon (perhaps even more relevant today after the euphoria of Chandrayan 3).

Decades later, another Indian luminary Nandan Nilekani seems to have almost paraphrased these immortal lines. “EkStep for India, a thousand steps for its billions.”

The occasion: an intellectual confluence of industry leaders, technocrats, and bureaucrats to discuss the possibilities of transforming India by ushering in a Digital Public Infrastructure(DPI) Revolution across the three pillars of the economy – Samaaj (civil society), Sarkar (government), and Bazaar (business).

The proponents: EkStep Foundation started by Nandan, Rohini Nilekani and Shankar Maruwada in 2015.

As per a recent IMF paper, between 2013 and March 2021, the Indian government saved up to 1.1% of GDP expenditure thanks to the advanced DPI. 

The Indian ecosystem has also witnessed a tremendous increase in the use of Digital Infrastructure, with a 200% increase in rural internet subscriptions against 158% in urban India between 2015 and 2021, as per the data from Press Information Bureau (PIB).

The focus areas included PeoplePlus Lifelong Learning, PeoplePlus AI for Societal Change, and PeoplePlus Open Networks. The Lifelong Learning focused on harnessing the power of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPIs) to enrich the learning experiences in FLN, vocational, and skilling sectors. 

The PeoplePlus AI for Societal Change deliberated on how AI can bring about societal changes by providing language as a bridge, turbocharging human capability, amplifying visibility and decision-making, and creating new possibilities and professions. 

The PeoplePlus Networks highlighted the importance of open networks for open opportunities in education & skilling to enable discoverability, accessibility, and inclusivity.

“Digital Public Infrastructure is a significant step forward for Bharat’s commitment to self-sustainability and technology leadership,” emphasized Nandan Nilekani.

India, through India Stack was the first country to develop all three foundational DPIs: digital identity (Aadhar), real-time fast payment (UPI) and a platform to safely share personal data without compromising privacy (Account Aggregator built on the Data Empowerment Protection Architecture or DEPA). Each DPI layer fills a clear need and generates considerable value across sectors.

Incidentally DPI has been collectively adopted by the G20 countries as a set of shared digital systems. This set obviously comes with a number of riders including security,  interoperablity,  on open standards and accessible for all, with governance and community as core components.

The G20 Digital Economy Ministers even arrived at a consensus to shape digital public infrastructure (DPI) of the future, as an accelerator of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) with the World Bank collaborated with the Government of India as its knowledge partner on DPI in the Digital Economy Working Group.  

Event the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, reiterated the “unshakable belief of India in innovation, speedy implementation of DPI, modulated by spirit of inclusion – leaving no one behind.” 

The G20 India Presidency also proposed the One Future Alliance’ (OFA) with support from UNDP and its knowledge partners. This alliance envisages a confluence of governments, tprivate sector, academic and research institutions, donor agencies, civil society organizations and other relevant stakeholders in the DPI ecosystem.

While theoretical discourses are fine, it is perhaps time to analyze the benefits of the digital public infrastructure for India. Creating a more equitable digital economy, reducing the wealth gap, empowering digital inclusion and enhancing service delivery obviously stand out. Add to these the reducing transaction costs, improving agricultural practices, improved decision making in governance, quick and effective disaster management and emergency response.

Notwithstanding the optimism, there are still bottlenecks around in more extensive DPI adoption.  The lack of access to infrastructure, digital divide and affordability are the top three challenges. Language and content barriers, physical and cognitive disabilities, privacy and security concerns as well as geographical disparities too pose as impediments.

A stronger policy and regulatory support, proper and timely investment in digital infrastructure, targeted use cases and services should be some of the action plans to mitigate these challenges.  Add to it more sensitivity towards localized content and language diversity.

Box: The G20 DPI Framework comprises three elements:

• Technology in the form of interoperable and reusable digital systems and applications (e.g., software codes, protocols, standards) that can be used across different use cases and sectors;
• Governance standards that codify human rights and protection of personal data, privacy, and intellectual property, as well as accessible and transparent grievance redressal mechanisms. Governance can also extend to cover institutions and funding;
• A community of private sector and civil society actors who collaborate.

Box: Examples of digital infrastructure include:

• Internet backbone, broadband.
• Mobile telecom and digital communication suites, including applications.
• Data centers and networks.
• Enterprise portals, platforms, systems, and software.
• Cloud services and software.
• Operational security, user identity and data encryption.