Budget 2024: Digital Public Infra On Govt’s Implementation Priority List

The Centre’s ambitious digital public infrastructure (DPI) initiative has found multiple mentions in the implementation document of Budget 2023-24 announcements. 

Mentioning DigiLocker, the Finance Ministry said that the offering has already been integrated with multiple ‘fintech entities’, including 14 private and public sector banks, 19 life insurance companies, and 26 general and health insurance companies. 

DigiLocker is a cloud-based platform that enables users to securely store, manage and share identification, personal and financial documents and certificates.

The document also noted that the ‘enablement of fintech ecosystem’ is an ongoing activity within the purview of the platform (DigiLocker). 

It also said that discussions and demonstrations with multiple agencies (such as SEBI, GSTN, CBDT, et al.) have already been undertaken as part of the development of the Entity DigiLocker platform, which is expected to be rolled out for these agencies soon. 

Under the platform, data verification of an applicant will be done directly on the basis of company information number and director information furnished on the portal. 

The development of both web and app versions of the new platform has been completed, added the budget implementation document. 

In an update on the ‘Skill India Digital’ initiative, the ministry said that the facility of onboarding relevant stakeholders of the skilling ecosystem on the platform has already been created. 

The DPI was launched in September last year and helps users find jobs and training opportunities. 

“Aadhar-based eKYC Integration with PAN, payment gateway integration, UPI and DigiLocker for verified credentials of (a) candidate, etc. has been integrated for API-based trusted credentials and payments,” the document added.

Agritech On Govt’s DPI Agenda, Too

In an update on the implementation of the digital public infrastructure for agriculture, the document said that the architecture of three core registries (farmer registry, geo-referencing of village map registry and crop sown registry) of the project has been finalised. 

Delving further, it said that the app for the farmer registry has been developed and a pilot programme is already underway. While geo-referencing for 75% of the villages in the country has already been completed, the digital crop survey has been launched on a pilot basis in 12 states.

“Support registries such as crop registries, agri data exchange, consent manager, sandbox and a unified farmer service interface (UFSI) have also been developed,” the document added. 

On the agri-focussed accelerator fund announced in last year’s Budget, the ministry said that an institutional mechanism and operational guidelines are under development. The Agriculture Ministry is expected to commence the identification of problem statements and selection of startups by February 15, 2024. 

“Capacity building of startups and releasing 1st phase of funding by 28th February 2024,” the implementation document added.

The push for DPIs has been a recurring theme of the current government’s policies. Be it building the India Stack from scratch or touting it on the global stage, the Union government has left no stone unturned to give an impetus to such initiatives. 

While nothing major was announced on this front in the interim Budget 2024, the government unveiled an INR 1 Lakh Cr corpus to fuel R&D in the country and a new scheme to spur the deployment of deeptech solutions in the defence sector. 

Additionally, cleantech, tax sops for Indian startups and IFSC also found mentions in the FM’s budget speech.