KOTTAYAM: The first day of the second G20 Sherpa meeting began with an all-day focus on the critical role of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) in improving development outcomes and India’s vast experience in implementing DPI at scale in the past decade. The side event was organised by the G20 Secretariat in partnership with NASSCOM, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL).
India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant, along with NASSCOM president Debjani Ghosh, inaugurated the DPI Experience Zone in the presence of Sherpas, or emissaries, and delegates from G20 nations, invited countries and international organisations.
The immersive zone highlighted key DPIs India developed to address issues such as digital identity, financial inclusion, and equitable access to education and health.
Various population-scale DPIs of India Stack, such as Aadhaar, Co-Win, UPI, DigiLocker, BHASHINI and others, were showcased in the zone. It also saw the presence of private sector enterprises such as Google, Microsoft, Paytm, Fractaboo, AWS and TCS.
Kant noted the crucial role of DPI in providing inclusive access to public services. He emphasised the achievements and huge strides India made in the past few years in the digital domain and highlighted the potential benefit of adopting DPIs globally, especially in developing and least-developed countries.
The event started with a special session on the importance and need of DPIs titled ‘Why DPI?’ and was followed by sessions on ‘How DPI delivers for people, planet and prosperity’; ‘DPI in the global context: How different countries are approaching DPIs and key learnings’; and ‘Scaling DPI: Challenges & opportunities’.
The special session started with virtual messages from eminent global leaders Nandan Nilekani, co-founder and chairman of Infosys; and Thierry Bretton, commissioner for the internal market of the European Union. The special address included a joint presentation by Priya Vohra, MD, Digital Impact Alliance, US, and Pramod Varma, ex-chief architect of Aadhaar who explained to the audience the transformational role of DPIs in diverse sectors and their architectural and economic aspects.