Digital Public Infrastructure should be citizen-centric, user-friendly, and accessible: MeitY Joint Secretary Sanket Bhondve

New Delhi, April 12: At the 9th Carnegie Global Technology Summit with the theme of 'DPI: The New Marketplace,' experts explored the impact of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) on societal and economic landscapes. Sanket Bhondve, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), emphasised that DPI should be "citizen-centric, user-friendly, and accessible."

"For every DPI, we need to understand the pulse of the market and the nuts and bolts of the field. It should be citizen-centric, user-friendly, and accessible. You can't put all the eggs in one basket. You have to customise what is needed," Bhondve said on Saturday.

Heba Shams, Vice President for Multilateral and International Affairs at Mastercard, underscored the crucial role of international organisations like the World Bank in advancing DPI initiatives.

"Since 2022, I have to say that international organisations have centered primarily on DPI. And that includes the World Bank, which is playing a very important role in this area," Shams said.

On the private sector's interaction with the DPI system, Shams said, "Since the introduction of Adhaar in 2016, the number of credit cards have doubled from 2016-2020. So, in the sense, we are beneficiaries of DPI as well."

Vyjayanti Desai, Practice Manager, Digital Development Global Practice in South Asia, World Bank Group, pointed out the importance of involving the private sector in designing foundational DPI components, particularly digital identity systems.

Desai said, "We don't often bring in the private sector as much as we should when designing some of the foundational DPI layers, particularly on this, where the governemnt clearly has a role like on digital ID."

Rohini Srivathsa, Chief Technology Officer of Microsoft India and South Asia, emphasised the vital role of system integrators in delivering solutions that benefit end users.

"The ability to ensure that you're delivering to your end customer in a way that benefits from rapid product innovation is crucial. I think system integrators have a really strong role to play here," said Srivathsa.

Notably, the final 'Report of India's G20 Task Force on Digital Public Infrastructure' for Economic Transformation, Financial Inclusion and Development was released in 2024.

The Ministry of Finance in a press release had said that the work of this Task Force had led to the acceptance of the definition and framework of the Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) during India's G20 Presidency and would be taken forward for implementation during the Brazilian and South African Presidencies.

On the occasion of releasing the report, Amitabh Kant, G20 Sherpa of India had said, "India did an incredible pole vault in Digital Public Infrastructure. We achieved in nine 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, accounting for nearly 46% share. All these proved to be building blocks for India to steer through the COVID-19 pandemic, be it transfer USD4.5 billion into the bank accounts of 160 million beneficiaries or facilitate distribution of 2.5 million vaccinations in two years with digital vaccine certificates on mobiles. We are far advanced in terms of digitisation and I am confident, this report will be the guiding North Star for the world to follow."

Co-Chair of Task Force, Nandan Nilekani, had said, "Governments and businesses around the world are increasingly realising that if they really want to achieve SDGs and social goals like inclusive growth, it has to have underlying DPI to make that happen. DPI has the power to dramatically improve the lives of citizens and transform governance. It has happened here in India and it started with the Aadhaar ID system, aimed at providing a digital identity to every Indian. Now, around 1.3 billion Indians possess this digital ID and on average 10 million eKYC per day is being facilitated through Aadhar."

He added, "Meanwhile in payment, UPI facilitates 13 billion transactions monthly, serving about 350 million individuals and 50 million merchants and DPI enabled direct transfer has saved Government USD41 billion across Central Government Schemes. Therefore, it's no longer a choice or a luxury, DPI is essential to get to where we want. This Report will play a key role in defining the future course of DPI approach and actions around the globe."

Reader Comments

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Priya K.

This is such an important discussion! Making DPI truly citizen-centric means considering rural populations too - not everyone has smartphones or stable internet. Hope they prioritize offline access options. 🙏

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Rahul S.

UPI has been a game changer for small businesses like mine. No more waiting for card machines or dealing with cash. Excited to see what's next in India's digital journey!

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Ananya M.

While I appreciate the progress, we need stronger data protection laws to go with these DPIs. More digital services mean more personal data at risk - security should be priority #1.

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Vikram P.

The stats about Aadhaar and UPI adoption are mind-blowing! Never thought India would become a global leader in digital infrastructure so quickly. Kudos to all involved 👏

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Sunita R.

My 70-year-old mother still struggles with digital payments. Would love to see more intuitive interfaces and local language support to truly make these services accessible to all ages.

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Karan D.

Interesting point about private sector involvement. Public-private partnerships could really accelerate innovation while keeping services affordable. Hope to see more collaboration!

We welcome thoughtful discussions from our readers. Please keep comments respectful and on-topic.