The final report of India’s G20 Task Force on Digital Public Infrastructure has been released. The report observes that technology has the power to dramatically improve the lives of citizens and transform governance. For over a decade and a half, India has shown the world how this can be done through inclusive Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) – Digital Identity (ID) systems, Digital Payments, and consent-based Data Sharing – which delivered public services during crises like the COVID-19 pandemic. By leveraging DPI, India has leapfrogged financial inclusion and traditional stages of development – achieving what ought to have taken it five decades in just under a single decade.
India has so far issued over 1.3 billion Aadhaar enrollments, facilitated more than 10 million daily e-KYC transactions, granted over 500 million individuals’ access to bank accounts, with 55% being women and 66% residing in rural areas, and enabled over13 billion UPI transactions in April 2024 alone, with a cumulative value of $230 billion. DPI enabled effective direct benefit transfer across multitude of Central Government Schemes that helped the government save over $ 41 billion by arresting leakages and transferring funds directly into the bank accounts of citizens.
The report encompasses three essential parts that collectively unravel the approach for global DPI advancement and adoption. In Part 1, the DPI Approach emerges as a transformative paradigm that effectively addresses global challenges through innovative technological solutions. Part 2 of the Report delves into how India has steered its DPI agenda, especially during its G20 Presidency in 2023 under its various working groups including the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) of Finance Track and Digital Economy Working Group (DEWG) of Sherpa Track. In Part 3 of the report, a forward-looking perspective is presented, outlining a strategic blueprint for elevating DPI across various sectors, as well as on a global scale through a range of its policy recommendations.
The report also highlights the need to identify an existing body of global standards with the scope of multinational presence, to foster and harness DPI ecosystem across various regions and countries especially Global South countries.
The Task Force was led by Amitabh Kant, G20 Sherpa of India, and Nandan Nilekani, Founding Chairman of UIDAI. The complete report is available on the website of the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance.
