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G20 document prepared by World Bank highlights India’s progress in Digital Public Infrastructure

08.09.2023

Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) has had a transformative impact on India, extending far beyond inclusive finance. The G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion document prepared by World Bank has lauded transformative impact of DPIs in India over the past decade under the Central Government. The document highlights the measures taken by Central Government and the significant role of government policy and regulation in shaping the Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) landscape.

Lauding India’s DPI approach the World Bank document notes that, India has achieved in just 6 years what would have taken about five decades. JAM Trinity has propelled financial inclusion rate from 25% in 2008 to over 80% of adults in last 6 years.The document categorically notes, “While DPIs’ role in this leapfrogging is undoubtable, other ecosystem variables and policies that build on the availability of DPIs were critical. These included interventions to create a more enabling legal and regulatory framework, national policies to expand account ownership, and leveraging Aadhaar for identity verification.”

In the last decade, India has built one of the world’s largest digital G2P architectures leveraging DPI. This approach has supported transfers amounting to about $361 billion directly to beneficiaries from 53 Central government ministries through 312 key schemes. As of March 2022, this had resulted in a total savings of $33 billion, equivalent to nearly 1.14 percent of GDP.

The DPI in India has also enhanced efficiency for private organizations through reductions in the complexity, the cost and the time taken for business operations in India. Even some NBFCs have been enabled 8% higher conversion rate in SME lending, a 65% savings in depreciation costs and 66% reduction in costs related to fraud detection. According to industry estimates, banks’ costs of onboarding customers in India decreased from $23 to $0.1 with the use of DPI. India's DEPA grants individuals’ control over their data, enabling them to share it across providers. This promotes tailored product and service access without requiring new entrants to invest heavily in pre-existing client relationships, fostering innovation and competition.

Tags : G20 document DPI Progress

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