On Apr 15, 2023, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman delivered the keynote address in a seminar, “India’s Digital Public Infrastructure – Stacking Up the Benefits’, organised by IMF in Washington DC”.
“Aadhaar through e-KYC has also brought down costs of verification, leading to savings in costs for customer acquisition from Rs 500–700 ($6-9) per person to Rs 3 (0.4 cents). The cost of loan processing has declined by almost 75%, thanks to the consent-based data exchange framework. Lowering of such transaction costs for the public and private sector ensures onboarding of more people into the formal financial system and thus more inclusion,” Sitharaman stated.
India is riding the digital wave, with a whopping 8.7 billion transactions taking place in March 2023 alone through Unified Payments Interface (UPI), accounting for over 68% of all payments. At a recent IMF seminar, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman spoke about the myriad benefits of India’s digital public infrastructure (DPI), which has been a real game changer during the pandemic.
With over $4.5 billion transferred directly into the bank accounts of 160 million beneficiaries and the COWIN app delivering over 2 billion doses of vaccines, DPI has hit the nail on the head. India has opened a record-breaking 462.5 million low-cost bank accounts, with over half being held by women, transforming the government’s direct benefits transfer system. The potential of DPI to steer countries towards progress, even in trying times, is like a breath of fresh air. With overall savings of more than $27 billion across key central government schemes, DPI is worth its weight in gold.