DPI

Digital public infrastructure. Or DPI. Examples include UPI, subsidy transfer, Digi Locker, Digi Yatra and many other such services. Which is why, as Rahul Matthan writes:

“Small wonder that so many of us have come to assume that for all things DPI, India is the global epicentre of innovation.”

 

But, as Matthan points out, many other countries have built some DPI too. During COVID, usage of digital wallets in Sierra Leone boomed. mPESA in Kenya for money transfer. A few Caribbean countries have issued a joint digital currency, the DCash. The BPNT program in Indonesia is used for the delivery of subsidized rice to its intended beneficiaries. In Ghana, they have the Safe Water Network that allows payment via SMS codes to improve water delivery.

 

The biggest use of such digital systems across countries seems to be wrt payments. But, in addition, as you saw above:

“This DPI approach had significantly accelerated the achievement of their societal objectives.”

These examples also show an interesting pattern – the creation and usage of DPI seems to be the highest in the Global South (aka the poorer countries).

 

The Global South looks upto India since India’s centralized approach to DPI (via the India Stack framework) makes it possible to keep adding newer ideas and innovations:

“(They want) to learn how India had leveraged open, interoperable protocols, a modular, extensible design philosophy and federated data storage to create an ecosystem of digital products.”

 

The West still barely makes any moves on the DPI front. Partly because they have existing systems in place that get the job done (though DPI would increase their efficiency). Migrating to a different system would have its challenges and costs. And vested interests would fight any such move, esp. in the digital payments space. Hence, DPI seems to an area where the Global South in general, and India in particular, will lead the way.

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