7 countries partner with India to adopt its digital public infrastructure model

Member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan have agreed on adopting India’s model of building and deploying digital public infrastructure (DPI).

The information was disclosed recently by India’s Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw after a partnership deal was concluded. The countries also agreed to put in place a common structure that will ensure interoperability between different technologies they deploy, reports Hindustan Times.

The Minister called the partnership “a significant recognition of India’s efforts towards having digitally inclusive growth at the global scale.”

India’s digital public infrastructure such as the Aadhaar digital ID, and the applications based on it like the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the DigiLocker digital wallet and CoWin COVID vaccine certificate, have been a point of great attraction for some countries.

Its DPI has often been cited as an example of digital innovation and transformation worth emulating by especially Africa countries seeking to implement digital ID projects on a large scale.

The UPI, for example, is credited with having significantly increased financial inclusion in the country by facilitating payments, with a total of 38 billion transactions said to have been completed on the platform in 2021

While highlighting the benefits of the country’s digital assets, Vaishnaw urged “all fellow members of SCO to assess, evaluate and adopt India Stack and benefit from this digital public infrastructure,” adding that “although the name of this project bears the word India, the vision of India Stack is not limited to one country; it can be applied to any nation, be it a developed one or an emerging one.”

Since it took over the G20 presidency, India has been showcasing the advantages of its digital stack, and also wants the bloc to show more support for global efforts in building and making the most of digital public infrastructure.

Article Topics

Aadhaar  |  DigiLocker  |  digital public infrastructure  |  India  |  India Stack  |  Unified Payments Interface - UPI