Budget 2024: FM Proposes Large-Scale DPI Applications For Key Sectors

In her budget speech, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a proposal to develop Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) applications at a population scale.

This initiative aims to drive productivity gains, create business opportunities, and foster innovation within the private sector.

“These are planned in the areas of credit, ecommerce, education, health law and justice, logistics, MSME service delivery and urban governance,” she said while presenting the Union Budget 2024-25.

The DPIs include Aadhaar, e-KYC, Aadhaar-enabled Payment System, UPI, Bharat QR, DigiLocker, e-sign, account aggregator, and the Open Network for Digital Commerce.

Sitharaman also said that an integrated technology platform for the IBC ecosystem will be set up to improve outcomes under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, ensuring consistency, transparency, timely processing, and better oversight for all stakeholders.

The finance minister said that technology has played a crucial role in improving productivity and addressing economic inequality over the past decade. Public investments in digital infrastructure, coupled with private sector innovations, have significantly enhanced access to market resources, education, health, and services for all citizens, particularly for the common people. 

“We will step up adoption of technology towards digitalisation of the economy,” she added.

Agriculture Gets DPI Boost 

The finance minister laid out plans to use DPIs for the agricultural sector. She said that the government, in partnership with the states, will advance the DPI initiative to cover farmers and their lands over the next three years. 

“During this year, a digital crop survey for Kharif using the DPI will be taken up in 400 districts. The details of 6 Cr farmers and their lands will be brought into the farmer and land registries,” she said.

The DPI, also called the India Stack, includes UPI, Aadhaar, DigiLocker, ONDC, eKYC, Aadhaar-enabled payments system (AEPS), among others. Over the years, the government has made a lot of efforts to promote DPI to increase transparency and strengthen the digital foundations.

The Economic Survey 2023-24, tabled in the Parliament on Monday, also credited DPI for the growth of the fintech industry in the country.

Earlier this month, electronics and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the central government will adopt a DPI-based approach for artificial intelligence development in India, similar to the approaches used in the healthcare, logistics, and payments sectors.

Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.