Stressing the critical need for countries to make their existing Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) universally applicable, the report of India’s G20 Task Force on DPI released on Monday called for allowing countries to use plug-and-play models to ensure their sovereignty and data ownership.
India’s proposal to formalise an interoperable global Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) framework in the G20 leaders’ communique had faced pushback from some developed countries, which argued that the move may impede the growth of global private payment processors.
The Task Force, chaired by Amitabh Kant, India’s G20 Sherpa, and Nandan Nilekani, co-founder of Infosys, was established in January 2023 to oversee and facilitate achieving India’s G20 Presidency agenda and priorities on Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and Financial Inclusion.
“India did an incredible pole vault in Digital Public Infrastructure. We achieved in 9 years what would have taken 50 years without DPI,” Kant said while referring to India’s UPI, direct benefit transfer, and successful COVID vaccinations.
Kant said that the task force’s report will be the guiding North Star for the world to follow.
The report cites examples such as the API Setu, as well as the open APIs published by India’s Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN), which allow a number of third-party apps to design unique and inclusive user experiences for filing taxes.
The report said that the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) International has reached out for UPI Globalisation in 80-plus countries and has already executed MOUs with more than 20 payment partners covering 30-plus countries. “To take this initiative even further, both bilateral and multilateral approaches are equally important,” the report said.
The task force has recommended that an existing body may be identified to foster and harness the DPI ecosystem across various regions and countries, especially Global South countries.
In a joint preface, Kant and Nilekani highlighted that many countries across the world are considering how to develop their national digital infrastructure to accelerate economic progress through drastic improvement in provisioning public services and foster trust between people and institutions by improving transparency and reducing distance.
“The report will play a key role in defining the future course of the DPI approach and actions for implementation around the globe, particularly in the Global South,” they wrote.
The report has talked about five stages for the global advancement of DPI, starting from advocacy, advisory, and financing to skilling, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation.
It has suggested an annual DPI forum for countries around the world to share their experiences with deploying DPI.
First Published: Jul 15 2024 | 6:59 PM IST
