India’s Secret Sauce for Global Growth

India’s sustained focus on developing its digital public infrastructure (DPI) through the launch of Aadhar, the unified payment gateway (UPI) and the open network for digital commerce (ONDC) could become a template for global economic growth. Infosys founder-chairman Nandan Nilekani believes that this model could soon find its way into at least 50 countries. 

Nilekani told delegates at the B20 Summit in New Delhi that a broad global coalition comprising multilateral agencies such as the IMF and the World Bank could soon be taking India’s DPI model to other countries. The technocrat has been at the helm of India’s effort at building digital public infrastructure starting with Aadhar and then UPI. 

Nilekani, who co-founded the Foundation of Interoperability in Digital Economy (FIDE), which developed the Beckn Protocol that helps decentralize digital commerce, said India is now growing from multiple sets of microeconomics to a single mega economy, thanks largely to the DIP model that solves problems with technology at population scale.  

Digital platforms and data-led growth

“Whenever you use a digital platform, it creates data. India has invented a unique idea of how individuals and companies can use their own data footprint to monetise it. This data footprint is their digital capital. And individuals can use digital capital to get ahead in life. This concept doesn’t exist anywhere in the world,” he said. 

Over the next few years, the world will witness a proliferation of this new way of thinking about digital infrastructure at population scale that uses an open architecture. The outcome would be that more and more such use cases would come to roost and get acceptance across other geographies where growth is being stunted. 

Targeted payouts and climate control 

Nilekani also pointed out that the DPI model could play a critical role in climate adaptation by facilitating cash transfers to fortify new areas and people at a faster pace. “For example, one of the things that will happen in climate adaptation is you want to give anticipatory financing for building more resilient homes in the situation of higher sea levels,” Nilekani said, “and you can do that using DPI,” he said. 

Building reverse logistics and a circular economy

Similarly, the Open Network for Digital Commerce platform can be used to build “reverse logistics” and enable a circular economy for recycling and reducing wastage. Further, with greater electric vehicle adoption, the technology used in the DPIs can be deployed to create an interoperable network for accessing charging stations and batteries.

He noted that given the impact of DPI, it is not something that is good to have but a vital shift that brings micro-economies of every country and drives inclusive growth into a much larger economy that can work without subsidies and be profitable. 

Highlighting the role of data empowerment as a means to creating faster economic growth, Nilekani said platforms are capable of generating digital capital which individuals can use to grow their businesses through securing loans, enhancing jobs and getting better at skills. He noted the numerous data points related to DPI in the past and how population scale success could be achieved in targeted cash transfers during the pandemic.