India should identify body to promote digital public infra in Global South: G20 task force

“The body may be of global standard with the scope of multinational presence. It should be able to work on policy dimensions, formulation and implementation of strategies with appropriate technical and academic expertise,” the report said.

“It may promote knowledge sharing on DPI and also undertake the role of guiding nations through effective deployment of their resources… be capable of working across various sectors… take the responsibility of developing and setting appropriate standards in various technical domains of DPI,” it added.

It said that the Reserve Bank of India is continually engaging with various Indian Missions abroad for globalising the UPI payment rails, and the National Payment Corporation of India’s (NPCI’s) international arm has reached out for “UPI globalisation” to over 80 countries, and has executed agreements with more than 20 payment partners covering over 30 countries.

The task force, set up in January 2023, was led by Amitabh Kant, G20 Sherpa of India and Nandan Nilekani, co-founder and chairman of Infosys and the founding chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).

The final report also said that integrating artificial intelligence (AI) with DPIs can amplify their capabilities, but cautioned that such integration should be done with guardrails of ethical use of AI and data privacy.

“AI can foster innovation in DPI. Open-source software, AI models, standards, or content that are publicly available can be replicated, modified, and shared freely. This encourages innovation and scalability in DPI by promoting the entry of private players in the technology industry,” the report said. “A DPI approach to craft the growth of AI would involve publication of open datasets via open API to train AI/ML models, creation of reusable AI toolkits (such as data tagging and curation tools) and publication of open models to drive market innovation in AI in service of all individuals.”

“By incorporating principles such as privacy preservation, bias mitigation, and algorithmic transparency, DPI can build trust and confidence among citizens in AI-enabled services,” it added.