Data for development integral part of overall theme: PM on G20 presidency

The digital transformation should not be confined to a small part of the human race and its greater benefits will be realised only when digital access becomes truly inclusive, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the G-20 summit on Wednesday.

Modi said India's experience in the past few years has shown that if digital architecture is made widely accessible, it can bring about socio-economic transformation.

In a session on digital transformation, the prime minister said the principle of "data for development" will be an integral part of the overall theme of India's upcoming G-20 Presidency.

India will assume G20 Presidency for one year, beginning December 1, 2022.

"Digital transformation is the most remarkable change of our era. The proper use of digital technologies can become a force multiplier in the decades-long global fight against poverty," Modi said.

"Digital solutions can also be helpful in the fight against climate change - as we all saw in the examples of remote-working and paperless green offices during the Covid-19 pandemic," he said.

The prime minister said these benefits will be realised only when digital access is truly inclusive and when the use of digital technology is really widespread.

"Unfortunately, till now we have seen this powerful tool only from the criteria of simple business, keeping this power tied in the ledgers of profit and loss," he said.

"It is the responsibility of us G-20 leaders that the benefits of digital transformation should not be confined to a small part of the human race," he noted.

Modi said digital use can bring scale and speed and transparency can be brought into governance.

"India has developed digital public goods whose basic architecture has in-built democratic principles. These solutions are based on open source, open APIs, open standards, which are interoperable and public," he said.

"This is our approach based on the digital revolution that is going on in India today. Take, for example, our Unified Payment Interface (UPI)," he said.

Modi said over 40 per cent of the world's real-time payment transactions took place through UPI last year.

"Similarly, we opened 460 million new bank accounts on the basis of digital identity, making India a global leader in financial inclusion today. Our open source CoWIN platform made the biggest vaccination campaign in human history, a success even during the pandemic," he said.

The prime minister said citizens of most developing countries of the world do not have any kind of digital identity.

"Only 50 countries have digital payment systems. Can we take a pledge together that in the next ten years we will bring digital transformation in the life of every human being so that no person in the world will be deprived of the benefits of digital technology," he noted.

"During its G-20 Presidency next year, India will work jointly with G-20 partners towards this objective. The principle of "Data for development" will be an integral part of the overall theme of our Presidency "One Earth, One Family, One Future"," he added.