The Digital India initiative was announced in 2015. Efforts then accelerated to enhance the penetration and integration of the JAM trilogy, consisting of Jan Dhan bank accounts, Aadhaar, and mobile phones. Currently, India has over 1.2 billion mobile phone connections, and almost 500 million Jan Dhan accounts. More than half of these account holders are women. These developments created a foundation where the government can efficiently and transparently transfer subsidies and benefits to intended beneficiaries bypassing intermediaries, thereby reducing leakages and corruption, while promoting financial inclusivity, and vastly expanding our financial architecture.

The next critical layer was designed to facilitate digital payments, and create interoperable financial services. It includes the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS), and solutions based on the UPI such as the mobile app Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) and QR codes. UPI has witnessed an extraordinary growth since its launch in 2016, with transaction volumes increasing from a modest few thousand to billions of transactions per month. India also emerged as the undisputed leader in digital transactions, accounting for 46% of all global real time payments last year. New layers are now being added with the support of the Data Empowerment and Protection Architecture (DEPA) framework. This will enable secure sharing of data, strictly based on consent, between individuals and various service providers across different sectors, all the while ensuring data privacy. Widely used applications including Aarogya Setu, CoWIN, and DigiLocker are all built over these structures. Newer DPIs, such as the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) and the Open Credit Enablement Network (OCEN), are currently being expanded and scaled up. Many of our entrepreneurs have also leveraged these platforms to create solutions and enterprises to accelerate India’s trajectory as the world’s fastest growing digital economy, with the third largest start-up ecosystem.

Many of these initiatives have given India the opportunity to establish itself as a key influencer of global frameworks in a technology-driven world. For instance, in 2022, PM Modi and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres jointly launched the Mission LIFE (Lifestyle for the Environment) movement. This initiative aims to encourage sustainable production and consumption, and to promote healthy, climate-friendly behaviour worldwide. India is a co-founder of the International Solar Alliance, the largest initiative of its kind, with over 120 signatory nations.

Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) is an area where India could assume leadership. Just before the G20 summit, the World Bank (WB) released findings that said India’s financial inclusion rate has increased from 25% in 2008 to over 80% of the entire adult population in the last six years. The WB noted that without DPI, this feat would have taken 47 long years. Many countries that are a part of the developing and underdeveloped world can benefit from India’s DPI.

During the G20 presidency, India introduced the One Future Alliance (OFA), a voluntary coalition with the objective of enhancing capacity and offering technical and financial support for the implementation of DPIs in low- or middle-income (LMIC) countries. India also spearheaded an initiative to create and manage a Global Digital Public Infrastructure Repository (GDPIR), which would be collaboratively shared by G20 countries and beyond.

These steps will position us as a central driver of worldwide standards in this important, burgeoning sector. The DPI, with broader adoption, could be a national talisman, highlighting India’s capability to develop large-scale global solutions. This would further enhance India’s prominence in a fast emerging multipolar world.

Anil K Antony is a national secretary and national spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The views expressed are personal