Union Minister of Communications Ashiwini Vaishnaw said that what is unique about India’s digital public infrastructure is that it is open source, interoperable, scalable, transferable, secure, and based on public-private partnership.
Ashiwini Vaishnaw said :
“India has made it a policy objective to ensure the benefits of the digital economy reach the last mile — this is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of inclusive growth,”.
Delivering the keynote address at an event host by G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant, Union Minister of Communications Ashiwini Vaishnaw said :
“We are happy to share India’s experience of digital public infrastructure, with the extended global family, which finds an echo in our civilizational ethos and India’s G20 presidency theme, Vasudaivam Kutumbakam.”
The theme of the event, which happene at Sushma Bhawan in New Delhi, was Building Resilient and Inclusive Economies: The Promise of Digital Public Infrastructure.
Bill Gates, co-chair and trustee, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, was the guest of honour at the event.
G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant spoke on India’s digital public infrastructure model.
Amitabh Kant said :
“Building and scaling digital public infrastructure has demonstrated the utility of safe, secure, and interoperable digital public platforms that have improved service delivery, minimised leakages and ensured efficient utilisation of available resources.”
He said India’s achievements in financial inclusion, digital health, digital education, and governance demonstrate how to scale technologies, thereby maximising their impact.
Amitabh Kant said India’s digital transformation model holds many valuable lessons for the world and urge G20 countries to leverage digital public infrastructure to unlock inclusive growth.
Bill Gates said :
“India has shown how investments in technology and innovation at scale can unleash changes from how people save money to how governments serve their citizens,”
He said there was an urgent need for an international initiative on digital public infrastructure to advance a range of G20 priorities, including pandemic preparedness, women’s economic empowerment, financial inclusion, good governance, food security, agricultural transformation, and digital health transformation.
Startup founders, entrepreneurs, representatives of civil society organisations, policymakers attend the event.
The event also include a panel discussion between MobiKwik Chairperson and Co-founder Upasana Taku, ZestMoney Co-founder and CEO Lizzie Chapman, and Open Financial Technologies Co-founder and COO Mabel Chacko, moderate by the G20 Sherpa.
Digital public infrastructure is an important priority of India during its presidency year.
A robust digital public infrastructure can accelerate a nation’s progress towards achieving economic growth, and ensure greater job creation and innovation.
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Bill Gates Praises India’s Digital Payment System; Says This Will Be Cheapest 5G Market
India’s sprawling digital public infrastructure receive a glowing endorsement from Bill Gates as he praise the country’s “great” digital network, reliable and low-cost connectivity, and said this will be the cheapest 5G market.
Under the G20 presidency of India, a session on ‘Building resilient and inclusive economies — the Promise of Digital Public Infrastructure‘ was held in New Delhi, where the Microsoft co-founder spoke of India’s digital identity Aadhaar, its payment infrastructure, and rapid strides that the country has taken in bringing more people into formal banking system.
Bill Gates Said :
“India in particular, by laying the groundwork for digital public infrastucture starting with identity system, allows people to build on top of that. And to make financial access and financial payment an element of that in a trusted way allows for an incredible variety of applications. We are just at the beginning of this. We are seeing incredible ingenuity about using this, and it is in many different sectors,”.
Bill Gates, who is the co-chair and trustee of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said that Covid-19 across the world had demonstrate the value of digital payment systems for facilitating emergency relief payments.
Billionaire Philanthropist Bill Gates Said :
“No country has built more comprehensive platform than India.. Because of the pioneering investment including creating the basic Aadhaar identity, India was in the lead in getting out (relief) payments…during the pandemic,”.
India can be “such an example” for other countries, Gates Said said.
Gates Said Said :
“As I said the Indian system is more ambitious in its breath, the digital vision from the beginning included areas like helping government with its tasks, or enabling exchange of educational materials,”.
He said that is an exciting year to showcase India’s innovations in digital public infrastructure and in other areas.
Gates Said Said :
“It is fantastic that as part of this G20 Presidency, the goal of exposing people to the benefits of that and offering to help them on their journey as they adapt it to their needs, that India is standing as a leader in this,”.
“We would like to see all countries, particularly developing countries, adopt these things.”
He address the session, also spoke highly of India’s competitive private market, reliable and low-cost connectivity, the innovation landscape and went on to say this will be the cheapest 5G market.
Gates Said Point out :
“One thing that India has that is pretty fantastic is you have a great digital network, you have a very high percentage of people using smartphones. You have opened transactions also with feature phones,”.
He said connectivity has an enabling factor for India.
Gates Said Said :
“The connectivity has very good, it is very reliable, it is the cheapest in the world. And the same thing is going to happen in 5G. There is no doubt this will be the cheapest 5G market,”.
He felt that the India model can also be replicate in other countries provide they bring up their public infrastructure. India and Singapore last week link the digital payment systems and that “is a very worthwhile goal“.
Gates Said Said :
“If we can reduce the overhead on remittence payment even just by a few per cent that is a gigantic amount of money,”.
India and Singapore on earlier this month link the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) network with Singapore’s PayNow.
The UPI-PayNow linkage will enable users of the two fast payment systems in either country to make convenient, safe, instant, and cost-effective cross-border funds transfers using their respective mobile apps.
Gates Said said that the beauty of digital systems is that for researchers it allows unlocking of information on who is using the system but at an aggregate level and in ways that do not compromise the privacy.
Gates Said Said :
“The ability to have continuous improvement to understand, Is it easy to use, does it work well in different verticals, there is far more to be done on that, including things like innovation centres that allow for that quick experimentation,”.
He said that India will have to streamline the justice system and adds “if there is any delay…that is a barrier to business investments“.
Gates Said refer to the mobile infrastructure space saying there had been “wild competition with winners and losers” and while that was a difficult thing, the government did not pick a particular company.
Gates Said Said :
“In the end, the users were beneficiaries,”.
Telecom and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw term 2023 as a landmark year, and said the digital technology has come of age.
Artificial intelligence, 5G and quantum computing have mature to become mainstream technology.
India has create unique framework for digital economy, that focuses on making a difference in people’s lives, Ashwini Vaishnaw said.
Ashwini Vaishnaw Said :
“The uniqueness of India’s digital public infrastructure is that unlike many geographies where digital technology was concentrated with big tech companies, India has a public private partnership model where every stakeholder has an important role”.
He outline India’s key initiatives such as Aadhaar, UPI, CoWin, and now the indigenous 4G/5G stack.
Ashwini Vaishnaw said India has made it a policy objective that benefits of digital technology should reach all sections of society.
Also Ashwini Vaishnaw assert that India is happy to share its technology for the benefit of the world.
