India’s DPI #1: Access

In earlier blogs, we saw the US and European policies on data. Coming to India, Rahul Matthan (in The Third Way) points out it is one of those rare countries which has collected a huge amount of digital data before it became rich. This is entirely because of the combo of smartphone + cheap Internet plans. Even those of us who lived through this phase forget how quick it was – in 2014, just 15% of the population had a smartphone, by 2022 over 65% had one.

 

There is one element of the data equation on which India is unique, namely that its gathering was facilitated by deliberate government policies and protocols, not by private players. Yes, DPI (Digital Public Infrastructure), which includes everything from UPI to eKYC to DigiYatra to DigiLocker and more. It ensures “interoperable digital architectures” (contrast that with the silos of Google or Facebook in the West; Alibaba or WeChat in China). Does the Indian approach provide any benefits and opportunities? Yes, on 3 fronts: Access, engagement and empowerment. Let us look at each.

 

Access. It is all, of course, rooted in Aadhar. Though initiated as a way to give a unique ID, Nilekani & Co went far beyond and designed it in a way where it could integrate with other digital systems as the source of identity.

“This design decision was a pivotally important decision.”

 

But most applications require more than an identity. In educational context, one needs say the name of the school or last degree. In a doctors’ forum, your specialization is needed. India’s system for that is the DPI called DigiLocker. It is a digital proof of one’s context specific credentials. Everyone with an Aadhar ID can access the government portal to generate a digitally signed version of such context specific credentials. Thus, you don’t have to show your college your finances, or your doctor your educational qualification. You pick what info you want to expose to different actors. Disabled people use it to get their disability certificates to avail benefits. One can get one’s birth certificate. Or a proof of having a valid driver’s license. During COVID, it was used to issue CoWIN certificates. The DigiYatra system uses only travel related details. You get the idea of context specific credentials.

 

Pick the relevant combo of info and you have different eKYC for different scenarios. This is what triggered the explosion in bank account creations. A n0-frills account could be created with minimal hassle of finding the right documents or for banks to worry about forged documents. By 2019, over 80% of the population had a bank account, the fastest ever financial inclusion program in history. And it is thanks to that bank account that UPI then became ubiquitous. After all, if your dhobi and sabzi wala didn’t have a bank account, he/she couldn’t accept or use UPI.

 

That then is the story of access. In the next blog, we will look at engagement.

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