India is a Vibrant Democracy that can Deliver Digitally - Smriti Zubin Irani

Highlighting the success of India’s digital evolution and India having transformed into a vibrant digital economy, Ms Smriti Zubin Irani, Hon’ble Minister of Women & Child Development and Minority Affairs, Government of India, stated that India is a vibrant democracy that can deliver digitally, and has delivered through technology to over a billion people.” Hon’ble Minister was speaking at the CII-Deloitte Breakfast Session on " Digital Public Infrastructure and India’s Impact on Global Technology Value Chains" at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2024 in Davos on 17 January. 

The Minister further spoke about the pandemic as being one of the greatest examples of bridging the digital divide in India. India had performed a manufacturing miracle when the entire world had shut down at the onset of the pandemic, and from zero PPE companies in March India grew to become the second largest exporter of PPE kits by June.  Irrespective of the challenges that the pandemic brought, India carried out very substantial policy reform and performed digitally to protect its populace.  India did not lose opportunities to engage globally and was never shut for business even during the pandemic.

Ms Irani went on to highlight another example of India’s digital transformation, that can be seen in the fact that this year 945 million Indians are eligible to vote through bio-authorised cards. India is a vibrant democracy that delivers digitally.

Mr R K Singh, Secretary, DPIIT, Government of India, also addressed the session and spoke about the significant growth in both physical and digital infrastructure in India, where unparalleled investments have been made. He emphasised that the formalisation of the economy and financial inclusion has taken place on an unprecedented scale and the digital divide has been bridged. The online roll out of services directly from government to citizens, Direct Benefit Transfers, Ease of Doing Business, and every aspect of a citizen’s life has been addressed across almost every state in India.

Mr Arvind Krishna, CEO, IBM emphasised the importance of Digital Public Infrastructure and said that during the pandemic, the digital infrastructure enabled people to work remotely. All the deliveries and e-commerce allowed people to work, which contributed significantly to increased productivity and GDP, which would not have been possible without the digital public infrastructure.

Mr R Dinesh, President CII stated that infrastructure spends, and tracking is where companies are investing, both from business as well as the competitiveness perspective to get the visibility of infrastructure across the end user. He said, “India is on the cusp of a very exciting journey that will go through very different levels and will provide significant boost to ease of doing business for investors.”

Also present at the session was Mr Romal Shetty, CEO, Deloitte, who spoke about the benefits of Digital Public Infrastructure in India and said “With DPI, outreach to rural India to the last mile, along with digital literacy, will help scale it even further. This is an incredible innovation and a real true product that India has built.”

Mr Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII spoke about how Digital Public Infrastructure has affected a large number of businesses including small, medium and large and is leading to a lot of innovation in the country. He stated “DPI is being offered to the world free of cost, which is an example to share with the rest of the world. The low cost of doing business & ease of doing business is encouraging more and more people in doing business with India”.

This session was moderated by Mr Vishnu Som, Executive Editor and Principal Anchor, NDTV.

17 January 2024

Davos