India’s DPI, not big tech will drive global future: Amitabh Kant

India’s G-20 sherpa Amitabh Kant is of the opinion that locally developed digital public infrastructure (DPI) platforms, and not big technology, would drive global future. He highlighted Aadhaar and UPI as examples of India’s successful DPI model to make his point, while addressing the We Made In India event in Mumbai on Thursday.

Encouraging domestic investment in startups, Kant spoke of the need to focus on job creation. He added that startups needed to exercise self-regulation.

Kant said that several countries were already showing interest in India’s concept of DPI, comprising digital identity (Aadhaar), real-time payment (UPI) and services as account aggregator that were displayed to the world during India’s presidency of the G-20 summit in 2023.

At last year’s G-20, other nations accepted DPI mainly due to the way the concept has enabled India to move ahead, Kant said, adding that DPI would play a vital role in India’s growth till 2047.

“During G-20, the world accepted the definition of digital public infra, the world accepted the framework of DPI and, to our belief, the future will not be driven by big tech. It will be driven by DPI,” Kant said, adding: “DPI will become synonymous with the rest of the world.”

Kant’s assertion about the significance of India’s DPI model comes at a time when tech giants such as Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet (Google), NVIDIA, Meta, Amazon and Tesla are going all out to redefine technology and the impact it has on lifestyles.

According to Kant, as the world takes to India’s DPI model, the outcome would lead to better opportunities for entrepreneurs of the nation. He encouraged pension funds and insurance firms to invest in Indian startups, adding that such a move would reap benefits the same way patient investing had done in the United States’ Silicon Valley. More than three-fourths of funding for Indian startups at the moment come from international sources, he pointed out.