India gets help from UNDP to convince nations about digital public infrastructure

India holds the presidency of the G20 this year, and officials say they will use the time to push a digital transformation agenda including the creation of digital public infrastructures globally.

Some observers in India think the nation’s Group of Twenty leadership could mark the start of India as a rule-setter for the region and the world.

According to development-content publisher Devdiscourse, India’s Electronics & Information Technology Ministry will focus on convincing nations that digital public infrastructures will help the world achieve sustainable development goals.

The ministry, working with the United Nations Development Programme, thinks it can export its success in public infrastructure projects including the unique digital ID, the unified payments interface (UPI), and the expanding DigiLocker.

As part of its influence campaign, the Indian government wants to build a knowledge hub on infrastructure to share examples of success and failure to move efforts forward faster.

India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, has bigger issues to push during his 12-month G20 presidency – maximum cooperation on climate change, terrorism and pandemics, for example.

The G20 is representatives of 19 large economies and the European Union, created (with fewer members) initially to foster financial stability, but now also addresses political challenges. Each member nation takes the one-year presidency on a rotating basis during which it has greater influence over the organization’s agenda.

The UNDP also backs digital public infrastructure organization OpenG2P.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital economy  |  digital government  |  digital ID  |  digital public infrastructure  |  G20  |  India  |  national ID