India's G20 Task Force Report Urges Global Boosting of Digital Public Infrastructure
The final report of the India G20 Task Force on Digital Public Infrastructure for strengthening the base of DPI globally, more so in the Global South, was released. One of the important deliverables of the G20 Presidency of India, the report was launched by its Co-Chairs – Amitabh Kant, G20 Sherpa of India, and Nandan Nilekani, Co-Founder and Chairman, Infosys, and Founding Chairman of UIDAI – Aadhaar.
The efforts of the task force have resulted in the acceptance of the definition and framework of DPI under the G20 Presidency of India itself, and set a precedence for implementation under the forthcoming Brazilian and South African Presidencies. "The report will significantly influence the future trajectory of the DPI approach and its global implementation with a strong focus on the Global South, especially under upcoming Brazilian and South African Presidencies", the Finance Ministry stated.
He further mentioned that the fast-paced progress that India has put up in DPI is unprecedented. "India did an incredible pole vault in Digital Public Infrastructure. We did in 9 years what would have taken 50 years without DPI. Today in India, UPI is used at all levels from street vendors to large shopping malls with the highest percentage of digital transactions globally and almost touching a share of nearly 46 percent". All this proved to be the building blocks for India while steering through the pandemic whether it is transferring $4.5 billion into the bank account of 160 million beneficiaries or facilitating the distribution of 2.5 million vaccinations in two years with digital vaccine certificates on mobiles. We are far advanced in terms of digitization, and I am quite confident that this report would be almost like a guiding North Star for the world to follow.
Co-Chair Nandan Nilekani said, "Governments and businesses across the world are slowly realizing that if they really want to drive SDGs Sustainable Development Goals and a social agenda like inclusive growth, it has to have underlying DPI to make that happen". DPI can make a huge difference to empowering citizens and changing governance dramatically.
The G20 Presidency has provided a big platform to thrust the policy discourse regarding important economic and developmental agendas globally. Its achievements in DPI digital identity, fast payment systems, and consent-based data sharing rhetorically show how 1.4 billion individuals can have access to some of the most critical services in Finance, Health, Education, e-Governance, Taxation, and Skill Development. It has secured the unanimous support of all G20 members on the reports and deliverables concerning DPI under both tracks of Finance Track and Sherpa Tracks, pointed out the Finance Ministry.
The overall report is structured into three essential parts. Part 1 introduces the DPI Approach as a transformative paradigm addressing global challenges through innovative technological solutions. Part 2 elaborates on the raft of India's leadership in keeping the momentum toward the advancement of the DPI agenda, notably on the Arbeit of its G20 Presidency in 2023, and the inputs of many working groups. Part 3 has a rather more forward-looking view since, in words, it sets out something like a strategic roadmap to be followed to bring about an augmented DPI across sectors and at the level of the world as a whole with a raft of associated policy suggestions.
This report also underlines the importance of finding a pre-existing body of global standards and a multinationals presence in order to foster and mobilize the DPI ecosystem from regions and countries, more precisely the Global South.
The final report can be accessed on the website of the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, here, and is a very valuable document for global policymakers and stakeholders committed to the cause of favourable progress in Digital Public Infrastructure.