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India has set an example for the world by building up a robust Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and is becoming a case study for implementation
Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) refers to a set of foundational digital systems that make up the essential services accessible, increase economic participation, and make governance effective in a country. These digital systems if executed with right strategy can become powerful and indispensable tools.
Digital Public Infrastructure should be able to support large scale public and private services, be interoperable and web accessible, ensure inclusivity and security while making the lives easier and efficient.
Key Features of Digital Public Infrastructure
Digital Identity – Digital identity refers to a unique digital identifier for individuals identifying them as the citizens of a country while enabling secure authentication and access to services. Example: Aadhaar in India
Digital Payments – Infrastructure platforms that facilitate seamless and secure financial transactions. Example: Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in India
Data Exchange & Consent Frameworks – Refers to a system that allows secure sharing of data while ensuring user consent and privacy. Example: India’s Data Empowerment and Protection Architecture (DEPA)
Benefits of having a robust digital public infrastructure
Financial Inclusion: Providing access to banking and credit services to the entire population while ensuring the infrastructure thus designed works seamlessly for everyone regardless of their gender, work profile, financial status, caste or creed.
Efficient Governance: DPI ensures a paperless bridge between the government and the citizens ensuring timely service deliveries like subsidies and welfare programs.
Economic Growth: Digital Public Infrastructure becomes advantageous for entrepreneurship and innovative services allowing companies to tailor make solutions around the infrastructure leveraging it’s benefits.
Data Security and Privacy: DPI ensures consent-based data sharing by building the process into the digital infrastructure from the very beginning.
Cost-Effectiveness: Seamless paperless governance reduces administrative overheads and transaction costs.
India’s Digital Public Infrastructure
India at present has positioned itself as a global leader in DPI with initiatives such as:
Aadhaar: Biometric-based digital identity
UPI: Real-time payment system
DigiLocker: Secure digital document storage
CoWIN: COVID-19 vaccination platform
ONDC: Open Network for Digital Commerce
Account Aggregator Framework: Data-sharing ecosystem for financial services
Digital Public Infrastructure is being adopted worldwide to create digital economies and enhance governance. Many countries are looking at India’s model to implement their own DPIs with specific area’s of interest being UPI and CoWIN.
