A DEMOCRACY PLAYBOOK

India's inclusive digital commons that enable low cost onboarding at incredible scale is drawing global eyeballs and appreciation. EPISODE #91

Dear Reader,

A very Happy Monday to you.

Last week the Ministry of External Affairs put out a press note ahead of India assuming the Presidency of the G20 for one year from 1 December to 30 November 2023. 

Among other things the walk-up identified a list of priorities that India was considering during its Presidency. This included:

“Digital public infrastructure and tech-enabled development in areas ranging from health, agriculture and education to commerce, skill-mapping, culture and tourism.”

Coincidentally, IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva, in an interview granted to Mint, waxed eloquent on India’s prowess with inclusive digital commons. She is part of the rapidly growing list of admirers of India’s digital commons.

Connect the dots and what we are seeing is a unique democracy playbook scripted by India. The growing global attention and admiration if leveraged, could provide considerable heft to India’s diplomatic clout. This week I explore this theme.

Do read the newsletter and share your feedback and insights.

The cover picture this week is a beautiful piece of sculpture I stumbled upon in Nehru Park, New Delhi. Curators of the garden, true to classic administrative apathy, have grown bushes in front of it besides relegating it to one obscure corner adjoining the car park. So you need to be looking for it. All good if we treat it as a treasure hunt.

A big shoutout to Niranjan, Gautam, Nimesh, Premasundaran, Aashish, Vandana and Yugainder for your informed responses, kind appreciation and amplification of last week’s column. Gratitude also to all those who responded on Twitter and Linkedin. Reader participation and amplification is key to growing this newsletter community. And, many thanks to readers who hit the like button😊.

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DIGITAL COMMONS

In a signal that India is readying in earnest for its Presidency of the G20 forum, the powerful global high table that frames the collective responses to challenges impacting the world economy, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) put out a press note.

The walk-up identified a list of priorities that India was considering after it assumes the Presidency for one year on 1 December.

This included:

“Digital public infrastructure and tech-enabled development in areas ranging from health, agriculture and education to commerce, skill-mapping, culture and tourism.”

Addressing a recent gathering hosted by the Observer Research Foundation, a Delhi-based think tank, Harsh Shringla, the former foreign secretary and presently the G20 coordinator, made a strong pitch for the need to showcase India’s success with digital public goods (DPGs).

Shringla began by highlighting the innovations:

“Our startup sector, a world beating digital public goods and industrial policy, focused on technological innovation and growth show that we are capable of creating tech models that balance the need for global integration and priorities at a national level.”

And then signalled India’s plan during its upcoming presidency:

“At the G20 this model must be internationalised.

Digital India must go global. A new tech order must combine cross border flows of technology and investment with development and growth aspirations.

The world needs new and innovative approaches to tackle today's complex challenges. Digital technologies present us with the tools to deal with some contemporary challenges.”

The G20 grouping is composed of both developed and developing countries, who between them account for 85% of the global gross domestic product, 75% of international trade and two-thirds of the global population. Given the dysfunctional state of most multilateral bodies, the G20 is now the go-to institution.

Like I pointed out in the cover letter, coincidentally, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, lavished praise on India’s public digital public goods.

In an interview granted to Mint last week she said:

“I am full of admiration for what India has achieved in digitalization. I understand that the pandemic was a mixed blessing. It was terrible for people and the economy, but it put digitalization on steroids. The result is for everyone to see.”

This is not the only validation that has come the way of India’s DPGs. They are pouring in.

Democracy Playbook

If we review the various public digital goods India has already created, what we have is a perfect playbook for a democracy. Especially relevant for India, which is still beset with basic developing country challenges. It is permitting India to leapfrog growth by digitally onboarding the next 500 million people.

The central characteristic of this model is that it is developed by putting together several digital building blocks which enable ease of use, scalability and interoperability—all of which are making these innovations difficult to ignore.

As a reader of this newsletter you would know that I frequently dwell on this subject. It is, as I argue, a compelling story that needs to be told and retold.

This project started with monetising identity (Aadhaar). Subsequently, there was the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), followed by the formulation of the electronic consent framework (or the consent artefact) by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology—it is essentially an electronic document that is machine readable and unambiguously lists the data that a user is willing to share.

The three layers—identity, payments and data empowerment—together formed the India (technology) Stack.

The open architecture of this DPG has powered the growing use cases that we have seen in the last decade. To cite a few:

• eKYC (presence-less);

• Aadhaar-enabled payment service;

• DigiLocker (paper less);

• CoWin;

• Account Aggregator;

• OCEN (Open Credit Enabled Network);

• ONDC (Open Network for Digital Commerce);

As these use cases demonstrate, the India Stack provided public digital rails that brought the entire population of India under one digital umbrella. This digital economy which enables presence-less, paperless, and cashless is the most powerful means of empowerment witnessed in modern India.

It is the perfect playbook for any democracy to graduate to the next stage of growth. This version of the digital economy is providing the means—exactly the reason it is winning global eyeballs.

I wrote about this in detail in the newsletter that coincided with India’s Independence Day on 15 August.

Sharing the link below if you wish to take a deeper dive.

DIGITAL SWARAJ

Diplomatic Clout

India’s success in forging digital commons for public good is undoubtedly arming it with a powerful diplomatic tool.

I had explored this theme recently in a conversation with the brilliant Sanjay Anandaram for StratNews Global. Sharing the link below, in case you missed it earlier or wish to watch it afresh.

The thing is, this coincides with a global push to creating DPGs (digital public goods). In fact they are now the primary pillar through which the United Nations is striving to achieve its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Its efforts are being complemented by the Digital Public Goods Alliance, an informal yet influential grouping of which India too is a part. It is trying to create a “a common vision, strategic objectives, definition, and standard for DPGs”. The co-hosting entities include Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), UNDP and UNICEF.

Hence India’s decision to identify DPGs as a priority item on the G20 agenda for next year is pragmatic diplomacy. Yes, it provides India serious bragging rights.

More importantly it provides the platform for India to globally scale its home grown plan to do public good leveraging digital commons. A perfect playbook from the world’s largest democracy.

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Recommended Viewing

If you recall, a fortnight ago I wrote about the big bet made by Jio on 5G, the game changing technology.

I followed up and devoted the latest episode of Capital Calculus on StratNews Global to a conversation with Mahesh Uppal, head of Com First India and a vastly experienced telecom consultant.

It was a freewheeling conversation in which Mahesh dwelled on Jio’s ambitious claims about its 5G rollout, the power and potential of the 5G technology and how it holds greater promise for enterprises.

He very candidly pointed out that technologies like 5G were blurring the divide between mediums. As a result regulation of these tech-heavy sectors are ridden with complexity and hence require domain expertise.

Mahesh very bluntly decried the practice of treating the leadership of these regulatory bodies as a sinecure for superannuating bureaucrats.

In case you missed the premiere last Thursday at 7 pm, do watch by clicking the link below:

Hope you enjoyed the episode.

Till we meet again next week. Stay safe.