Gaps in India’s Digital Public Infrastructure

[GS Paper 3 – Information Technology, Science and Technology]

A very good lot of importance was given to India’s Digitisation in the Union Budget 2022. But the thing where it lacked was the budgetary allocation for ‘Digital Public Infrastructure’ (DPI). DPI is the idea which when combined with open interconnected data systems gives cross-sectoral digital rails like ID, payments and data exchanges.

Significance

1. A global trendsetter: India is seen as a global trendsetter in the DPI movement, having set up multiple large-scale DPIs like Aadhaar, UPI and sector-specific platforms like DIGIT for eGovernance and DIKSHA for education.

2. Improvement in public service delivery: These DPIs have helped push the frontier of public service delivery.

3. Four key announcements in Budget: This year’s budget adds to the growing discourse on DPIs by making four key announcements:

4. In health, an open platform with digital registries, a unique health identity and a robust consent framework;
5. In skilling, a Digital Ecosystem for Skilling and Livelihood (DESH-Stack) to help citizens upskill through online training;
6. a Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP) to streamline movement of goods across modes of transport; and for travel,
7. In mobility, an “open source” mobility stack for facilitating seamless travel of passengers.

8. Analysis by the Centre for Digital Economy Policy Research (C-DEP) estimates that national digital ecosystems could add over 5 per cent to India’s GDP.

Ways to Improve upon the gaps:

• Differentiating between the “tech” and “non-tech” layers of our digital infrastructure — while India seems to have made significant headway on the “tech” layers, the “non-tech” layers of community engagement and governance need a lot more work.

• To unleash the true potential of India’s ODEs, we need to get the “non-tech” layers right, by prioritizing principles around data protection, universal access and accountability. 

• Protecting the data of all users and giving them agency over how their data gets used. The passage of a robust Data Protection Bill is imperative. 

• India must also focus on developing anchor institutions and robust governance frameworks. Just as Aadhaar is anchored by UIDAI under an Act of Parliament, and the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission is anchored by the National Health Authority, every new ODE requires an accountable institutional anchor.

Conclusion

From Aadhaar and UPI to DBT and CoWin, India’s tech stacks are grabbing global attention. It is now critical to bring the gaze on to the non-tech layers of the stack, so that the potential of these platforms can be unlocked for every Indian.

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