DECODING DPI: SCRIPTING INCLUSIVE DIGITAL FUTURES
Tech Huddle | ORF and CDPG, IIM Bangalore

Digital public infrastructures (DPIs) are foundational population-scale technology systems upon which the digital economy is built. DPIs mediate the flow of people (through digital identity systems), money (through real-time fast payment systems) and information (through secure data-sharing architectures). India became the first country to establish these three DPIs, with extraordinary outcomes for national digital transformation. DPIs have improved public service delivery at scale, and facilitated the development of innovative new public and private sector applications and solutions. Evidence of the benefits of DPI is strong, growing, and international:

• India’s digital identity and payments platforms eliminated an estimated 47% of fraud, amounting to $22.4 billion in savings each year.
• In Bangladesh, DPIs radically improved service delivery and saved Bangladeshi citizens nearly 2 billion days, over $8 billion, and 1 billion visits to government offices.
• Estonia’s efficiency gains from its X-Road system are equivalent to 2% of the country’s GDP and give citizens back the equivalent of an extra 844 working years annually.

In 2023, the first-ever multilateral consensus on DPI was arrived at under India’s G20 Presidency. This was a key moment for the future of digitalization where the Global South articulated its leadership in the space of tech governance. The advantages of DPI and its role in accelerating progress for inclusive and sustainable development were acknowledged globally.

The ORF-IIMB Tech Huddle aims to build on the momentum generated by these discussions, and explore three key themes: (1) The principles of DPI; (2) The private provisioning of DPI; and (3) DPI-enabled innovation and competition.

A joint ORF- CDPG, IIMB co-branded report will be published based on the discussions at the Huddle.