The Hindu Editorial Analysis- 30th March 2023 | Current Affairs & Hindu Analysis: Daily, Weekly & Monthly - UPSC PDF Download

Why in News?

India’s digital public infrastructure (DPI), loosely the India Stack and more, is a marvel of our times, shaped in a unique partnership between governments (Union and States), regulators, the private sector, selfless volunteers, startups, and academia/think tanks. Engendering sustained collective action at scale between so many disparate entities itself is magical and the outcomes are India’s answer to Web 3, perhaps even superior in many ways.

• India’s digital public infrastructure (DPI) refers to the collection of technological systems, platforms, and services that enable the Indian government, businesses, and citizens to interact digitally.
• The DPI is often referred to as the India Stack, which was built through a unique partnership between the government, regulators, the private sector, selfless volunteers, startups, and academia/think tanks.
• India Stack includes a number of building blocks such as Aadhaar (a biometric identification system), e-KYC (electronic know your customer), UPI (Unified Payments Interface), and DigiLocker (a cloud-based document storage system).

• India, first country to develop all three foundational DPIs: India through India Stack became the first country to develop all three foundational DPIs digital identity (Aadhar), real-time fast payment (UPI) and a platform to safely share personal data without compromising privacy (Account Aggregator built on the Data Empowerment Protection Architecture or DEPA)
• Techno-legal regulatory frameworks in India: Techno-legal regulatory frameworks are used to achieve policy objectives through public-technology design.
• For example: India’s DEPA offers technological tools for people to invoke the rights made available to them under applicable privacy laws. Framed differently, this techno-legal governance regime embeds data protection principles into a public-technology stack.
• DPI most feasible model: DPI has emerged as the most feasible model due to its low cost, interoperability and scalable design, and because of its safeguards against monopolies and digital colonisation.

• Rebirth of Aadhaar: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision enabled Aadhaar to become the rocket ship for launching good governance in India. Currently, over 1,700 Union and State government schemes use Aadhaar.
• Aadhaar and the private sector: After the Supreme Court’s affirmation of privacy rights, Aadhaar is gradually being opened to the private sector. Aadhaar holders can voluntarily use their Aadhaar for private sector purposes, and regulated entities can store Aadhaar numbers using secure vaults. These changes are leading to the next leapfrogging of India Stack.
• Three changes: The next leapfrogging of the India Stack, with a dynamic political executive and inspired volunteers, will happen with three changes, voluntary usage of Aadhaar for private sector purposes, sharing of Aadhaar data between government departments, and the creation of a new private sector-friendly UIDAI.

• India Stack’s greenfield market innovation potential can unlock various services such as DigiYatra, which offers a free biometric-enabled seamless travel experience through facial recognition systems, and DigiLocker, which has 150 million users and six billion stored documents.
• Plans are afoot to expand DigiLocker to many countries around the world.

• The unified payment interface UPI which is breaking records under the visionary leadership at the National Payments Corporation of India
• UPI has now crossed eight billion transactions per month and transacts a value of $180 billion a month, or about a staggering 65% of India’s GDP per annum.