'India believes technology must be democratised, stands ready to collaborate by sharing its DPI with world'

United Nations | India said it is expanding its Digital Public Infrastructure ecosystem into areas such as agriculture and smart cities and stands ready to share successes with the international community, as UN leaders commended the country for its leadership in investing in this domain.

Minister of State for the Ministry of Commerce & Industry and the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Jitin Prasada, said that the Indian DPI success story is a showcase to the world.

"DPI is all about empowering citizens, good governance, inclusive and sustainable growth at the societal level. The future will not be built by machines alone but by the choices we make about how technology serves humanity,” Prasada said in his keynote address at the event organised by India's Permanent Mission to the UN at the world body's headquarters on Thursday.

Prasada added that looking forward, India is expanding its DPI ecosystem into agriculture, logistics, smart cities and more.

"The next wave will prioritise privacy and data protection, digital skilling and literacy, cross-border DPI partnerships, sustainability and resilience. Artificial Intelligence is going to be a force multiplier for DPI. India is deploying AI, keeping in mind our philosophy of serving the last person at the bottom of the pyramid," he said.

Prasada said that India believes that technology must be democratised, made inclusive, affordable and advance human dignity. “That is what India's digital public infrastructure represents,” he said.

President of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly, Philemon Yang, commended India on the success of its digital transformation and leadership in investing in digital public infrastructure.

"I commend India on the success of its digital transformation and leadership in investing in digital public infrastructure. Indeed, digital public infrastructure holds the key to inclusion in the global digital society. And these technologies are evolving at breakneck speed,” he said at the special event titled ‘Empowering the Digital Citizen of the Future: Towards an Integrated Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI)'.

Yang added that digital technologies are impacting every aspect of human life and are transforming economies, reducing costs, opening new doors to education and healthcare, and empowering citizens like never before.

"In India, for example, it means 'anywhere access' to 'anytime vaccination' for any registered pregnant woman or child across the country,” he said.

Yang noted that he was “privileged” to see the U-WIN digital initiative himself earlier this year and voiced appreciation for what happens when digital public infrastructure and women and girls are at the heart of the digital revolution.

“These technologies hold vast potential to unleash progress across the Sustainable Development Goals,” he said.

India's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare launched the U-WIN (Universal Immunisation Win) that streamlines the entire process of vaccination services.

Prasada added that the DPI scales, serves and saves. It is not infrastructure for a few, but it is an architecture for many.

“A global public good. The world is taking note,” he said, adding that over 18 countries are exploring or adopting India's DPI - from Singapore integrating UPI to Sierra Leone piloting digital ID, and DPI elevated to a global agenda at the G20.

He said India is pushing for greater representation of the global south in AI discourse.

“The digital citizen of the future must not be a consumer of technology, but a co-creator of equity... India stands ready to collaborate by sharing its DPIs,” Prasada said, adding that India's DPI proves that development can be fast, fair and frictionless. “When inclusion is coded into design, exclusion becomes obsolete.

Let us work to build a world where digital dignity is a right, not a privilege.” India's Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador P Harish, said that with the launch of Digital India in 2015 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has implemented several unique digital transformational projects.

He highlighted Aadhaar, Unified Payments Interface, Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana as well as the Jan Dhan Yojana-Aadhaar-Mobile the so-called JAM Trinity initiative that linked 540 million Jan Dhan bank accounts, with Aadhaar cards, and mobile phone numbers to facilitate Direct Benefit Transfers (DBTs) of government subsidies to needy citizens, ushering in the world's largest financial inclusion programme and reducing leakages and corruption.

Harish stressed that AI is redefining Indian agriculture by enhancing productivity, optimising resource use, and improving decision-making for 200 million farmers.

“Our digital citizens of the future deserve an integrated Digital Public Infrastructure aided by AI systems, so that no one is digitally left behind. Our duty is to work for that, and in such an endeavour, India is a friend and partner of choice for all, especially the Global South,” he said.

Under-Secretary-General and UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Digital and Emerging Technologies Amandeep Singh Gill said that India's experiment with DPIs is a “model” and also lauded examples from other regions like Brazil, Southeast Asia, and Africa. “We now have enough evidence that DPIs work. They work at scale and they work in a deeply transformative manner,” Gill said.

Gill added that “we are looking at how interoperability across DPIs can improve intra-regional, inter-regional trade and scale for digital entrepreneurs." “There is great potential in these challenging times when global trade is under pressure to build resilience and intra-regional scale for entrepreneurs by linking together DPIs and by reimagining them, by building them in more of an interoperable way,” Gill added.

The event also featured a presentation by Founding CTO of Aadhaar and CEO of Khosla Labs Srikanth Nadhamuni on how India is leveraging artificial intelligence to enhance the impact of its DPI and highlighted that India's inclusive approach to AI and DPI—built as global digital public goods — can serve as a transformative model for countries worldwide.