The Digital India campaign launched in 2015 was aimed at creating greater national financial inclusivity, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday. Speaking virtually at the meeting of the G20 Ministers of Digital Economy taking place in Bengaluru, Mr. Modi presented India’s diversity as a resource that supports testing and solution of new digital products from all over the world and said it was necessary to build consensus on the “G20 high-level principles for a secure, trusted and resilient digital economy”.
“As the digital economy spreads globally, it will face security threats and challenges. In this context, it is important to build consensus on the G20 high-level principles for a secure, trusted, and resilient digital economy. We in G20 have a unique opportunity to lay the foundation for an inclusive, prosperous and secure global digital future,” the Prime Minister declared in his opening remarks.
He said the digital infrastructure should cater to farmers and small businesses and urged the need to create a “framework for safe and responsible use of Artificial Intelligence”.
“India’s digital transformation over the last nine years is unprecedented. It all started with the launch of our Digital India initiative in 2015. It is powered by our unshakeable belief in innovation. It is driven by our commitment to speedy implementation and it is motivated by our spirit of inclusion — leaving no one behind,” Mr. Modi said.
He presented India’s digital economy as an enabling system and said the country had leveraged technology to make governance “inclusive” and “transparent”. Mr. Modi highlighted the reach of the Aadhaar digital identity and said that it covered more than 1.3 billion Indian citizens.
“We have used the power of JAM trinity — Jan Dhan Bank accounts, Aadhaar and Mobile — to revolutionise financial inclusion in India. Every month, nearly 10 billion transactions take place on UPI, our instant payment system. More than 45% of the global real time payments happen in India,” Mr. Modi said, emphasising that the digital system in India had brought “probity” into the governance system.
He announced that India was building “Bhashini” an AI-powered language translation platform that would be available in all Indian languages.
“India is an incredibly diverse country. We have dozens of languages. and hundreds of dialects. It is home to every religion in the world and innumerable cultural practices from ancient traditions to latest technology. India has something for everyone. With such diversity, India is an ideal testing lab for everyone. A solution that succeeds in India can be easily applied anywhere in the world,” the Prime Minister said.
