India’s Digital Public Infrastructure experience provides effective strategy for other central banks: RBI Gov Das

Noting the success of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das on Monday said that India’s experience has provided an effective digitisation strategy for other central banks.

Speaking in Bengaluru at the event of the Global Conference on Digital Public Infrastructure and Emerging Technologies, the RBI Governor said, “It can be said that DPI has enabled India to achieve in less than a decade levels of financial inclusion that would have otherwise taken several decades or even more.”

He further added that the DPI offers a path to effectively manage critical national infrastructure.

“In times of crisis, as during the COVID-19 pandemic, India and a few other countries were able to leverage digital infrastructure for vaccination programs and targeted transfer payments,” Das remarked elaborating on the success of the DPI.

Das during his speech highlighted India’s experience with the DPI.

“India’s DPI Journey is a unique model wherein, the basic technical infrastructure that is the technological infrastructure is built operated and managed in the public sector. While the private sector accesses the DPI to create Innovative customer-facing services and products. The adventures of developing DPI in the public sector is that typically the private sector would be averse to Capital investment to create infrastructure with uncertain returns,” Das said elaborating on a unique approach by India’s public sector to facilitate the private sector.

“The advantage of developing DPI in the public sector is that typically private sector would be averse to capital investment to create infrastructure with uncertain returns. Privately created infrastructure may not also be amenable to democratised access or interoperability. The unique approach of India is conducive for designing services and products that are competitive in the open market,” Das said.

Das added that last year G-20 summit under India’s leadership, the G20 digital economy working group developed a global DPI repository.

Elaborating on the benefits of DPI, Das said that around 1.4 billion accounts have been generated for the residents of India.

Speaking about the success of Unified Payment Interface (UPI) Das said, “The current ecosystem of digital payments in India offers a bouquet of simple, safe, and secure options for instant or quick transfer of funds, both large and small value, for businesses and individuals.”

“NPCI has played a significant role in the growth of retail digital payments in India. NPCI itself was promoted by banks under the guidance of the Reserve Bank of India. Initial participants on the UPI platform were banks non-bank third-party providers and the use of QR codes has all combined in popularizing the UPI. It has since emerged as a robust cost-effective and portable retail payment system and is attracting active interest across the globe,” Das stated.