India has experienced a tremendous transformation ever since the introduction of various digital technologies. The Aadhaar card initiative and the digital payment gateways have reshaped the economy by bringing into the ambit of formal transactions almost the entire informal transactions.
the volume of transactions has grown significantly with Jan 2023 alone accounting for eight billion transactions worth $200 billion by 300 million people and 50 million merchants. the scale of these transactions is unprecedented and nowhere in the world has anyone experienced such volumes ever.
The engine of this transformation has been the “Digital Public Infrastructure” (DPI) on which products and services can easily be built to benefit the people. this idea which has been tremendously successful in such a diverse country like India, can now be easily expressed or shared with other countries in the world, both developed and developing.
DPI can be understood as an intermediary layer that sits above a physical layer( devices, servers, connections, data centres etc.,) and supports an application layer(information kiosks, e-commerce, cash transfers, remote learning, telehealth etc.,) It acts as a connecting layer offering registries for payment infrastructure, IDs of people etc., It offers service from mobile services, data verifications, smart technologies, education, health, to name a few.
Governments, the public, policymakers, businesses, technological organisations, and international organisations all have a role to play in ensuring the success of DPI. The final responsibility rests with the government but businesses play an important role in building the physical layer and providing services.
Attributes of an ideal DPI.
DPI should have the following attributes.
- Enable SDG goals: From applications in agriculture, education, finance, and healthcare DPI can be leveraged to meet every SDG goal.
- Inclusive: There is a continuing divide across socioeconomic, gender and geographical lines. DPI benefits from access through a common platform namely the internet and wifi and can help bridge the divide by providing the tools and infrastructure to everyone irrespective of caste or creed and without any bias.
- citizen-centric: The usage context should not become a barrier to the use of DPI and availing its benefits. Voice-assisted services with authentication can break down these barriers and provide these facilities to everyone.
- trust: DPI can give users the confidence that the system is impartial and not biased. Authentication facility, reliable services, data privacy and security assure the users that they are protected from misinformation.
- Innovation: once the basic infrastructure is in place, DPI can promote additional experimentation, collaboration and coding to facilitate new services as well as make the system more efficient.
- Interoperable: DPI built on open standards can leverage common assets for multiple users.
- Resilient: The adaptability of DPI as a fast-moving response platform during a crisis is essential.
- Politically viable: DPI requires funding and so it requires the support of politically significant stakeholders. Else it can be hobbled by over-regulation or starved of funds required to keep it functioning smoothly.
The DPI model arose during a period of extreme need. crises can cause many barriers to be demolished at once. India had an inefficient legacy to overcome. Across the world the epidemic caused many governments to transmit information regarding vaccination status and tracking the effectiveness of public health measures. Nandan Nilkeni said, “DPI does not require deep pockets, it requires deep convictions”. For DPIs to be successfully deployed across the world, donors, governments and businesses must come together with deep conviction and with innovative models in collaboration.
The Case for Investing in Digital Public Infrastructure
by Bhaskar Chakravorti
HBR 2023/05
R2G 