India’s DPI #2: Engagement

In an earlier blog, we went over one of the benefits of India’s DPI (Digital Public Infrastructure). In this one, we go over another benefit – engagement, as explained in Rahul Matthan’s The Third Way.

 

The most obvious reason why DPI has increased and improved citizens’ engagement is the cost reduction of everything digital as opposed to physical. People don’t need to create copies of documents; recipients don’t need to find storage space to keep it.

 

Even better, with a digitized system, identification no longer requires a trip; which saves both time and money. Workflows are easier to design and change. Digital trails help finding fraud or fault easier. Transactions are digitally signed and timestamped (sometimes geo-stamped, i.e., location coordinates included).

 

“Universally trusted digital rails” are now well and truly in place. The most used and well-known services of which is, yes, payments. UPI, a “blindingly simple system”, allows money transfer seamlessly across different banks. The system was designed to share the minimum possible info exactly needed to complete the transaction. Covid-19 helped accelerate the popularity of UPI. More than the convenience of money transfer, it yielded second order benefits. Now that everyone could exchange money digitally, new kinds of commercial transactions became possible for individuals and smaller businesses. That then raised the question of how the goods would be delivered. Which led to the rise of Porter, Dunzo and Delhivery. New commercial models have come into existence.

 

Next up the empowerment aspect of DPI.

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