G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant showcases India's Digital Public Infrastructure

India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant on Thursday, March 30, said open standards, open API, and interoperability are the hallmarks of India’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI).

Speaking at the first day of the second G20 Sherpa Meeting, Kant emphasised the achievements and huge strides India has made in the past few years in the digital domain and highlighted the potential benefit of adoption of DPIs globally, especially in developing countries and the Least Developed Countries.

Kant, along with NASSCOM President Debjani Ghosh, inaugurated the DPI Experience Zone in the presence of sherpas and delegates from G20 members, invited countries and international organisations.

Demonstrating India’s DPI success story, the immersive Digital India Experience zone highlighted key DPIs developed by India for addressing crucial issues such as digital identity, financial inclusion, and equitable access to education and health.

Various population-scale DPIs of India stack such as Aadhar, Co-Win, UPI, DigiLocker, BHASHINI and others were showcased in the experience zone. The experience zone also saw the presence of private sector enterprises such as Google, Microsoft, PayTM, Fractaboo, AWS and TCS, which showcased the innovation potential of DPI.

The special session, 'Why DPI?' started with virtual messages from eminent global leaders Nandan Nilekani, Co-Founder and Chairman, Infosys; and Thierry Bretton, Commissioner for Internal Market of the European Union, who addressed the participants on the utility of DPIs and India’s ambitious DPI agenda during its G20 presidency.

The special address included a joint presentation by Priya Vohra, Managing Director of Digital Impact Alliance, Washington, D.C., and Pramod Varma, ex-chief architect of Aadhaar and India Stack, CTO EkStep Foundation, who explained to the audience the transformational role of DPIs in diverse sectors and its architectural and economic aspects.

The day-long session ended with a closing by Joint Secretary G20 Nagaraj Naidu, who highlighted the tremendous promise that DPI holds in accelerating the achievement of the sustainable development goals — from cash transfers and food distribution to e-commerce and innovative models of education and healthcare delivery.