Editorial 1 : Five sutras for digital infrastructure
Context: What is meant by a good digital public infrastructure?
Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI)
- Emphasis on digital public infrastructure was a key highlight of the G20 summit in New Delhi, 2023.
- India’s remarkable achievement of over 80 per cent financial inclusion within just six years has garnered global acclaim, especially as a beacon of hope for the Global South.
- India now shoulders the responsibility of enabling countries worldwide to achieve digital sovereignty, financial inclusion, and self-reliance.
- Diverse stakeholders in digital landscape striving to develop and promote their DPI solutions.
- Private Enterprises
- Government Bodies
- Non-profit organisations
- Think tanks
Distinguishing Good DPI from Bad DPI
- In the many digital public infrastructures, the challenge lies in identifying authenticity and maintaining the core essence of the practice.
- A good DPI harmonises technology with societal needs, ensuring security, scalability, and inclusivity.
- India Stack, a comprehensive digital infrastructure platform, has already demonstrated its efficacy and security on an unprecedented scale, serving over a billion citizens.
The Citizen Stack
- Citizen Stack emerges as a trusted ecosystem rooted in the proven success of the India Stack.
- What truly sets Citizen Stack apart is its role as a regulatory body or auditor, not a manufacturer of DPIs. It certifies and authenticates DPIs, ensuring they meet stringent standards of quality and security.
- Citizen Stack’s model is not just about technological prowess; it embodies a holistic approach to digital infrastructure that prioritises security, scalability, and inclusivity.
- Citizen Stack-approved DPI platform design ensures that it can cater to the diverse needs of a vast population while maintaining stringent security protocols to protect user data and privacy.
- By acting as an auditor, it guarantees that the DPIs it certifies are reliable, secure, and beneficial to the public.
Five Sutras for a good DPI
- To delineate what constitutes a “good DPI”, Citizen Stack has formulated five guiding principles, or sutras. These principles serve as the benchmarks for evaluating the integrity and efficacy of DPI solutions.
- Uphold the citizens’ relationship with the market and the state.
- Safeguard citizen empowerment and privacy.
- Prevent lock-in by competing monopolies.
- Techno-legal regulation by combining public technology and law to govern ethical tech use, ensuring innovation, security, and societal rights in the digital age.
- Public plus private innovation by promoting innovation through public and private sector collaboration, while avoiding domination by corporate interests.
- These sutras are non-negotiable. A DPI must meet all these criteria to be classified as a “good DPI”.
Way Forward
- As we advance into an increasingly digital future, the principles and practices exemplified by Citizen Stack will be crucial in building and maintaining the trust necessary for widespread adoption and success.
- India is dedicated to enhancing the offering of digital public infrastructure for the benefit of the global community.
Editorial 2 : Building on Success
Context: Learning from the success of the Swachh Bharat Mission
Swachh Bharat Mission reducing Infant Mortality
- According to a recent study published in the prestigious science journal Nature, building of around 11 crore individual household latrines under the Swachh Bharat Mission has averted 60,000-70,000 infant deaths annually.
- Open defecation is a known source of water and food contamination, besides disease transmission through the faecal-oral route.
- There may be questions over official claims of India becoming open defecation-free. But reduction in infant and child mortality consequent to improved sanitation access is consistent with international experience.
Syncing Swachh Bharat Mission and Jal Jeevan Mission
- Along with child mortality, stunting and wasting needs to come down.
- Repeated infections from contaminated water, lead to dehydration and malabsorption of nutrients.
- Swachh Bharat Mission and Jal Jeevan Mission could have a transformative role to overcome this situation.
- Jal Jeevan Mission envisions providing safe drinking water through tap connections to all rural households by 2024, is also being taken up at-scale.
- Critical thresholds are possible when Swachh Bharat Mission’s effects are combined with universal piped drinking water availability.
Successes of the government in last 10 years
- Government schemes and initiatives like Swachh Bharat Mission and Jan Dhan have been a remarkable success.
- They highlight the key achievement of government in implementation of schemes at population scale.
- Universal access to bank accounts has allowed subsidy and welfare payments to be directly transferred to beneficiaries.
- It also facilitated digital transactions through UPI and other mobile-based protocols.
- Toilets are, not just about ensuring dignity, they address a major pathway through which millions of Indians are repeatedly exposed to enteric pathogens.
Way Forward
- Along with successful government schemes there are certain other schemes which are not so successful like Soil Health Card or schemes whose effects aren’t yet visible like Jal Jeevan Mission.
- Ultimately, it is a matter of sustained intervention by the government at various steps and going beyond meeting just the initial numerical targets.