In line with the theme of India’s digital push and the subjects that New Delhi’s top leadership have been talking about throughout the course of the country’s G20 presidency, member nations reached a consensus on deploying digital public infrastructure for financial inclusion, creating a global framework for regulating crypto-assets and endorsing responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI). The New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration stated the G20 countries recognised that safe and trusted deployment of digital public infrastructure (DPI) can “enable service delivery and innovation”. They added that even while accounting for the potential downfalls of AI, they will “pursue a pro-innovation” approach. The Indian Express had earlier reported that throughout India’s G20 presidency, it played up the country’s efforts at creating digital public infrastructure and explored other nations’ interests to adopt the underlying technologies that power India’s DPI push, which it brands as the India Stack. Industry analysts see this as India’s bid to set itself up as a nation pioneering digital governance, especially as it aspires to assume a leadership role in the Global South. Within government circles, this is also being pegged as a differentiator from rival China, which is funding physical infrastructure development in other developing countries. Interoperable DPI and financial inclusion G20 members welcomed the ‘Framework for Systems of Digital Public Infrastructure’ which was agreed upon by countries during the last Digital Economy Ministers’ meeting in Bengaluru last month. The framework calls for building interoperable solutions and formulating laws that can ensure that DPIs are safe, secure, trusted, and governed transparently. Approaches to building DPI should embed privacy-enhancing and security tech within the services core design to ensure privacy and data and customer protection. The framework, though, is non-binding. The declaration also said that member countries will deploy all available digital tools and technologies and “spare no effort in fostering safe and resilient digital ecosystems, and ensuring that every citizen on our planet is financially included”. They committed to promote responsible, sustainable and inclusive use of digital technology by farmers and an ecosystem of agri-tech start-ups and MSMEs. The countries also said they will leverage digital technologies for the “protection and promotion of culture and cultural heritage”. Consensus on crypto regulations Another key win for the India's G20 presidency was to gather consensus around creating a global regulatory framework for crypto-assets. G20 countries said that while they continue to closely monitor the risks of the fast-paced developments in the crypto-asset ecosystem, they endorse the Financial Stability Board’s (FSB’s) high-level recommendations for the regulation, supervision and oversight of crypto-assets activities and markets and of global stablecoin arrangements. The Indian Express had earlier reported that getting a consensus around this required India to backpedal on its stated policy position on crypto-assets, and highlighted how far its key regulators have moved: In 2018, the Central Board of Direct Taxes had submitted a draft scheme to the finance ministry for banning virtual currencies and a month later, the RBI restrained banks from dealing in cryptocurrencies, a decision that had to be reversed by the Supreme Court in 2020. During a press briefing Saturday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the report released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and FSB will be discussed further by members during the World Bank Group-IMF Annual Meeting in October, to draw out specific contours for a global framework. She did not wish to comment on whether that could involve a regulatory framework or an outright ban, although the latter is unlikely to find many takers, with New Delhi unlikely to push for it. IMF-FSB’s paper had recommended against an outright ban on crypto-assets. Instead, it suggested introducing a licensing regime for crypto-asset platforms bringing the asset under the fold of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing standards. “We ask the FSB and SSBs (standard setting bodies) to promote the effective and timely implementation of these recommendations in a consistent manner globally to avoid regulatory arbitrage,” the New Delhi Leaders’ declaration said. Responsible AI The declaration said that in order to ensure responsible AI development, deployment and use, the protection of human rights, transparency and explainability, fairness, accountability, regulation, safety, appropriate human oversight, ethics, biases, privacy, and data protection must be addressed. They agreed to pursue a pro-innovation regulatory/governance approach that maximises the benefits and takes into account the risks associated with the use of AI. They will also share information on approaches to using AI to support solutions in the digital economy.
