New Delhi: India is ready to share technical capabilities and knowledge related to its Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) ecosystem for financial inclusion efforts of the Global South, Ajay Seth, secretary, Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) said on Friday.
Speaking at the International Conference on Digital Public Infrastructure, Seth said that India has used ecosystems around DPI, which is an interoperable, scalable, open, and inclusive system, digitally empowering, to provide society wide services by public and private players.
“We developed a solution approach for delivering the best in the class services for the last mile and even the remotest parts of the country,” Seth said adding that the country’s achievements are well known in numbers.
The world’s largest financial inclusion mission, the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), crossed the 500 million mark last month, nine years after it was launched with over ₹2 trillion worth of deposits. Over 55.5% of bank accounts belong to women, and 67% come from rural and semi-urban areas.
“The average balance in these accounts is over ₹4,000. Our digital payment system, UPI, crossed 10 billion transactions in the month of August alone,” Seth said. “Today, more than 5.5 crore Jan Dhan (Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana) accounts are receiving direct benefit transfers and government schemes have already made savings of over $27 billion.”
He said that DPI approaches are capable of solving societal problems at a scale even under crisis.
“DPIs facilitate innovation, and are effective for both public and private sector, especially for SMEs of emerging countries as well as developed economies,” Seth said.
“In the backdrop of challenges, the need of the hour is to identify simple, scalable, tested and sustainable solutions that can transform our societies and economies by eradicating poverty and ensuring universal healthcare and education,” he added.
Meanwhile, chief economic advisor, V. Anantha Nageswaran, present at the event, said that critical areas where countries can collaborate for financial inclusion and growth through the DPI approach include knowledge sharing, capacity building, and cross border linkages to help remittances.
“Our first step should be to encourage and foster knowledge sharing on the design, development and operations of DPIs,” Nageswaran said. “These collaborations will lead to refinements of DPIs in countries that have already implemented them.”
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Updated: 22 Sep 2023, 07:22 PM IST
