G20 Delhi summit likely to have dedicated vertical for digital public goods

Open-source Aadhaar and UPI will be two top digital public goods offered; govt trying to take QR-based authentication and payment services global following success of DBT, payment digitisation

The open-source architecture of Aadhaar and the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) are expected to be showcased at the G20 presidency to be hosted by India next year. As part of global digital public goods, the Union government plans to offer the expertise and architecture of India Stack to other countries, according to a top source.       

The government has been trying to take the QR-based authentication and payment services to the global stage while highlighting digitisation in payments, direct benefit transfer and delivery of welfare within the country.

The dedicated vertical on digital public goods at the G20 summit would help create awareness about the benefits of implementing tech solutions of India Stack, another source said.

India stack comprises a host of open source software application programming interfaces (APIs) of government-backed services such as Aadhaar, UPI, eSign, DigiLocker, etc. The open-source model has created a plethora of computer languages, architecture, APIs, libraries or lexicons, user interfaces, and the apps themselves.

“We keep getting delegations from different countries once every two weeks. The uniqueness of services like Aadhaar is that they run on an open-source architecture, which ensures that it is reliable and much cheaper,” a senior government official said.  

“This has created interest among developing countries in Africa, Asia, and South America,” he added.

The idea behind using open networks is to establish a level playing field for members of a digital ecosystem. The application developers can focus on building better consumer experiences and products instead of having to worry about infrastructure, permissions, and access, the official explained.

“Countries can adopt different elements of India stack depending on the interest, the level of maturity of the IT systems in that country.”

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said recently that the country’s open-source network for digital public goods and application programming interface was available to other countries that needed it.

This comes at a time when Aadhaar enrolments and UPI transactions are at a record high. More than 1.3 billion Aadhaar cards have been issued as of June 2022 with enrolment of adults nearing 100 per cent. Close to 1,000 government schemes — 650 from state governments and 315 from central government — use Aadhaar authentication services.

As of September 2022, the total monthly UPI transactions were at 7.3 billion worth around Rs 12 trillion.

Digital leader

• Govt may leverage G20 summit to take India Stack to global stage
• The architecture, APIs, and libraries or lexicons of UPI and Aadhaar can be used by other countries
• Open networks establish a level playing field for all members of a digital ecosystem
• Several countries have shown interest in adopting open source APIs of India Stack