UPI no more a technology, it's a population-scale habit: Sujit Nair, CEO and Co-Founder FIDE

"UPI is no more a technology in some sense. UPI is a population-scale habit. You have 500 million people using DPI, UPI as a way of life, and that idea, that way of thinking of how do you bring large population, especially the people who probably do not have access formal access to the economy, bring them together closer and make government, public, private sector all come together to serve people and small businesses," said Nair, talking to ANI, on the sidelines of Carnegie Global Technology Summit.

He added digital public infrastructure (DPI) can put people, businesses in centre and give them access, opportunity, choices to participate in a formal economy and expand the pie for everybody and for the market overall.

Talking about ONDC, a DPI, he said ONDC is actually helping the shopkeepers and drivers to have more say, more participation and more autonomy.

"Without having to have any central platform in the centre so they can make their own choices. They can come on their own terms and participate without having to be depending on any other intermediary. That idea of decentralised e-commerce network, not a platform of ONDC, is actually helping the shopkeepers and drivers to have more say, more participation and more autonomy," he explained.

"In how they want to access the digital economy to grow themselves and also build resilience around what they do. For example, it's not just about for a driver to get more rights but also get loans and insurance and ONDC can facilitate all of that."

Digital Public Infrastructure is revolutionizing public services and creating economic opportunities globally, particularly in Global South countries.

Aadhaar and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) have created seamless digital ecosystems for India--which successfully highlighted DPI during its G20 presidency.

Nigeria has leveraged digital identity and payment systems and looks to build data exchanges next, Malawi is deploying DPI-as-a-packaged-Solution (Daas) on a pilot G2P project for post-disaster social support payments, Papua New Guinea is expanding digital connectivity despite cybersecurity vulnerabilities, Morocco has displayed digital transformation of administrative and educational services, while countries like Dominican Republic have committed to the UNDP led 50-in-5 campaign.

However, challenges in DPI adoption remain--from data privacy concerns and cross-border information flows to uneven adoption and technical interoperability issues that may widen existing divides.

India has signed MoUs with several countries for cooperation in the field of sharing of digital public infrastructure so far.

Among others, a key emphasis of the Indian government has been on ensuring that the benefits of Indian DPIs are not limited to India only; other countries, too, benefit from it.