Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw calls for urgent digital security collaboration

Digital public infrastructure has a significant role to play in democratisation of technology, said Vaishnaw

Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Saturday said the global interconnectedness has created shared security risks requiring the urgent need to collaborate on digital security.

Addressing the G20 Digital Economy Working Group Ministers Meet, Vaishnaw said three priority areas have been selected by the Indian presidency for the digital economy Working Group, which will help in the democratisation of technology.

"Global interconnectedness creates shared security risks. Therefore the need to collaborate on digital security has become more urgent," the Minister, who holds Railways, Electronics and IT portfolios, said.

Appreciating the efforts of the digital economy working group of G20, he said the group has been diligently engaged in discussions for steering the member nations towards common ground.

In this context, Vaishnaw said, "The three priority areas selected by the Indian presidency for the digital economy Working Group are digital public infrastructure (DPI), security in the digital economy and digital skilling." The Union Minister said these priorities reflect the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who believes in democratisation of technology.

Underlining that the benefits of technology should reach every citizen regardless of her or his socio-economic status, Vaishnaw said digital public infrastructure has a significant role to play in democratisation of technology.

According to him, India's digital payments platform UPI is a vibrant example of the public-private partnership approach.

"The platform was created using public funds, then the private participants joined the platform. Over 70 banks, more than 50 million businesses and more than 335 million users joined this platform," Vaishnaw said.

The result is that there were $10 billion instant transactions in the month of July 2023. On an annualised basis, the value of these transactions now exceeds $2 trillion, he added.

Vaishnaw also told the audience that several such solutions have emerged in multiple sectors including healthcare, digital document verification, education and insurance.

"The next frontier will be digital credit, where well established banks and financial institutions would compete for a loan of ticket size as small as one dollar and a tenure of as small as two days. That is the kind of solution we are looking at so that the people at the bottom of the pyramid, can get the same level of financial services that the rich and prosperous people get," the minister explained.

The second priority area, according to Vaishnaw, is security in the digital economy since establishing trust in technology is critical to its adoption.

The increasing frequency and volume of digital transactions necessitated to focus on promoting security in the digital economy, the Union Minister said, adding this can be achieved through awareness building measures and education.

The priority area, Vaishnaw said was to further the creation of a future-ready workforce. In this regard, investing in talent was critical.