SCO Members Embrace India’s Digital Public Infrastructure Proposal
Members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) have adopted India’s resolution on Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI).
This approval underlines India’s growing leadership in the digital sector. Also, recognizes India’s efforts to bridge the digital divide and promote more digitally connected sectors.
The proposal includes Aadhaar Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and DPI platforms like DigiLocker. Earlier in the Union Budget 2023-24, schemes for DPI in agriculture, education and finance sectors were announced.
DPI refers to a set of shared digital building blocks, such as applications, systems and platforms that are governed by interoperable open standards or specifications.
The DPIs commonly used in India are collectively known as India Stack.
Three different levels-
- Unique Identification (Aadhaar);
- Improved payment system (Unified Payment Interface, Aadhaar Payment Bridge, Aadhaar Enabled Payment Service etc.); and
- Data Exchange (DigiLocker and Account Aggregator).
Benefits of DPI –
- Payments linked to social security schemes were directly transferred to the bank accounts of beneficiaries during the COVID pandemic using Aadhar.
- This has helped in reducing leakages, preventing corruption, increasing coverage in government schemes, etc.
- The use of digital payments has helped small traders to increase the number of customers. In addition, easy access to financial services for individuals and companies has been ensured.
- Digitization has also helped in formalizing the economy. The registration of 8.8 million new taxpayers for GST payment between July 2017 and March 2022 is a testimony to this.
- The CoWIN platform has helped in scaling up the vaccination program in India at a rapid pace.
Source – Hindustan Times
