Context- The India stack is an unified software that plans to bring the Indian population into the digital age with the digital public infrastructure . It shall be India’s web 3.0, a new generation of decentralized network forming the backbone of India’s cashless economy.
What is digital public infrastructure (DPIs)?
The digital public infrastructure refers to the platform and technological systems of universal access to information and data management that benefits the government , citizens and other businesses. It aims to connect the Indian economy digitally.
India stack– An equivalent to the DPIs was created by the unique partnership between governments (union and state), regulators, the private sector,selfless volunteers and startups , academia / think tanks. It includes the Aadhar, Digilocker, UPI, KYC, Digi yatra and many more.
The Aadhar– The brainchild of Nandan Nilekani and R.S Sharma in 2009 is the foundation of the DPIs.
It is a biometric identification system regulated by the UIDAI- unique identification authority of India.
Aadhar’s rebirth in 2014 became the rocketship to launch good governance on. Today it is used by 1700 union and state government schemes.
Today it is opened to the private sector as well for ease of doing business and day-to-day transactions for citizens.
Aadhar holders today can voluntarily use it for private sector purposes without special permission and the aadhar data can be used between government departments(intra and inter state) with prior informed consent of citizens.
Aadhar along with the PAN– permanent account number helped in creating the Goods and service tax network (GSTN) .
Digi Yatra– – a biometric enabled seamless travel (BEST) experience based on FRS – facial recognition system helps in easy and hassle free identification of passengers at airport checkpoints,security check and boarding gate clearance. It is launched by the Ministry of civil aviation.
Digi locker– one of the best known DPIs . It is a cloud based document storage platform for citizens . Today it has 150 million users and 6 billion stored documents . It stores relevant data and documents that can be uploaded while availing or applying for other services digitally thereby saving time . Zerodha, Upstox, RazorPay, and other insurance fintechs survive due to the application programming interface(APIs) like Digilocker as the e-KYC- electronic knows your customer process happens through it, instantly.It is launched by the Ministry of electronics and information technology(Meity).
UPI- Unified payments interface under the National payments corporation of India (NPCi) has empowered citizens with easy digital transactions with real time fast payments. With 8 billion transactions per month and 65% of India’s GDP per annum.
Other such DPIs:
- Digi Seva– on online delivery of government services by the Ministry of electronics and information technology (Meity).
- Digishala- to promote digital education by the Ministry of human resource and development.
- Digi Gaon– provides digital infrastructure in villages by the Ministry of electronics and information technology (Meity).
- Digishaksham- on empowering citzince an digital literacy initaitive, by the Ministry of electronics and information technology (Meity).
- DigiDhan– digital financial inclusion, by the Ministry of electronics and information technology (Meity).
- Digisanghrah – digital cultural repository by the Ministry of culture.
- Digimusems– online museum,by the Ministry of culture.
Conclusion
India’s digital infrastructure today marks the second war of independence providing economic freedom in everyday life transactions and forming the backbone of the Indian economy. It shall help in powering India towards a $25 trillion economy by the 100th year of independence .
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