UN panel lauds India's digital initiatives for economic inclusion

India has been lauded by a high-level panel on digital cooperation launched by UN chief General Antonio Guterres for undertaking revolutionary digital initiatives to ensure economic inclusion for its 1.3 billion citizens.

Launched in July last year by the UN Secretary General, the 20-member panel, co-chaired by billionaire philanthropist Melinda Gates and Alibaba founder Jack Ma, in its report recognised the consequential role played by new digital ecosystem 'India Stack' in helping the government agencies and entrepreneurs achieve economic inclusion in India.

IndiaStack is a set of Application Programming Interface that allows governments, businesses, startups and developers to utilise a unique digital infrastructure to solve India's hard problems towards presence-less, paperless and cashless service delivery, its website said.

The panel, tasked to map the trends in digital technologies, identify gaps and opportunities and outline proposals for strengthening international cooperation.

It was launched to consider how digital cooperation can contribute to achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

"Combinations of digital public goods can create 'common rails' for innovation of inclusive digital products and services," the panel's said in the report 'The Age of Digital Interdependence' at the UN headquarters this week.

"The India Stack is an example of how a unified, multi-layered software platform with clear standards, provided by public entities, can give government agencies and entrepreneurs the technological building blocks to improve service delivery and develop new business models which promote economic inclusion," it said.

The report recognised the revolutionary digital initiatives taken by India to ensure economic inclusion for its 1.3 billion citizens.

The report stressed that digital cooperation must be tailor-made to meet the requirements of individual nations and communities, highlighting how India is achieving financial inclusion through its own digital platforms.

"What works in one country may not work in another. Rather than try to replicate specific successes, digital cooperation should aim to highlight best practices, standards and principles that can create conditions for local innovations to emerge and grow based on local issues, needs and cultural values," it said