Need to expand benefits of digital technology across the globe: PM at G20

The proper use of digital technologies can become a force multiplier in the decades-long global fight against poverty, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday while addressing a session on digital transformation at the G20 summit in Bali.

Underlining the need for expanding the benefits of digital technology across the world, Modi said that during India's presidency of the G20 -- which will commence from December 1 -- it will work jointly with G20 partners towards achieving this objective.

Citing the benefits of digital technology during the Covid-19 pandemic, 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 Covid.

"But these benefits will be realised only when the digital access is truly inclusive and when the use of digital technology is really widespread."

He however noted that it is the responsibility of all G20 leaders to ensure that the benefits of digital transformation should not be confined to a small part of the human race.

Here the Prime Minister shared India's experience of the past few years of making digital architecture inclusive and how it has brought about a socio-economic transformation.

"Digital use can bring scale and speed. Transparency can be brought in governance. India has developed digital public goods whose basic architecture has in-built democratic principles," Modi told the gathering of world leaders.

He further said that India has made digital access public, but noted that at the international level, there is still a huge digital divide as 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 10 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," the Prime Minister added.

--IANS

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