World Bank lauds India's Digital Public Infrastructure in G20 document
World Bank on Friday lauded India's Digital Public Infrastructure in a G20 document. It said India’s Digital Public Infrastructure has had a transformative impact, extending far beyond just financial inclusion.
The international financial institution in a document applauded India, stating what the country has achieved in just six years would have otherwise taken about five decades.
India has developed some of the finest digital public goods infrastructure which could change lives the world over.
UPI, Jan Dhan, Aadhar, ONDC, and CoWin are some of the examples.
The World Bank document prepared ahead of the big G20 Summit in New Delhi highlighted the key measures taken by the Modi government and the pivotal role of government policy and regulation in shaping the Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) landscape.
World Bank said JAM (Jan Dhan, Aadhar, Mobile) trinity – a combination of bank accounts for all, Aadhaar, and mobile connectivity — has propelled financial inclusion rate from 25 per cent in 2008 to over 80 per cent of adults in past six years, a journey which according to it shortened by up to 47 years — thanks to DPIs.
“While DPIs’ role in this leapfrogging is undoubtable, other ecosystem variables and policies that build on the availability of DPIs were critical. These included interventions to create a more enabling legal and regulatory framework, national policies to expand account ownership, and leveraging Aadhaar for identity verification,” the World Bank document noted.
Since its launch in 2014, the first year under Narendra Modi’s prime ministership, the number of PM Jan Dhan Yojana accounts tripled from 147.2 million in March 2015 to 462 million by June 2022; women own 56 percent of these accounts, more than
