50+ Countries Want To Implement Digital Public Goods: Nandan Nilekani

Witnessing the interest for digital public goods across the world, non-profit foundation Co-Develop is working philanthropically to take digital public goods developed in India to other countries. More than 50 countries want to implement digital public goods, cofounder and chairman of Infosys Technologies Nandan Nilekani said recently.

“In more than 50 countries across the world, they want to implement digital public goods, which is why we set up the Co-Develop platform. There is going to be a huge demand for that,” Nilekani said as quoted by ET. 

Besides, government-to-person payment platforms such as India’s Direct Benefit Transfer also have demand in many countries. It must be noted that Co-Develop is funded by the Gates Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation and the Media Foundation.

While developing digital public goods in India, three areas were prioritised – portability, mobility and providing choice. In terms of portability, there are two aspects, he explained, adding people are mobile.

As the digital identity should be able to work anywhere, mobility of the bank account and mobility of the digital ID from anywhere is important, he noted.

On the other hand, portability gives a choice to consumers. “One can go to any bank and use their Aadhaar number. This provides convenience and bargaining power in the hands of the recipient,” he added.

Interestingly, an Aadhaar-like open-source ID platform MOSIP (Modular Open-Source Identity Project), which was developed by Bengaluru’s International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), is being used in many countries such as Morocco, Philippines, among others. According to Nilekani, many public goods that are being developed have global applicability.

Considerably, as United Payment Interface (UPI) has revolutionised India, the country is in talks with 30 countries to take UPI outside the world, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said. In addition, three countries such as France, the UAE and Singapore have already signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) to adopt the open digital platform,