India’s Digital Stack Now Available For Other Countries: FM Nirmala Sitharaman

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said that India’s digital stack, which includes the open source network for various digital public goods and indigenously built digital applications, is available to all countries that need such technology.

Citing the development of the CoWIN application, which the Indian government built to streamline the data for Covid-19 vaccination and other information related to the pandemic, Sitharaman said that it is now available for any country that wants to use it.

Speaking at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington DC, she also emphasised the government’s Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC). Besides, she said that the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which has simplified payments systems across the country, is now being made available to various countries.

“So if India today can talk of a digital stack, it’s not talking of just the payment where UPI, which is today acceptable in Singapore, UAE, and many other countries,” said Sitharaman. “We are not talking of just Rupay cards, credit cards…The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has already had an agreement signed in France. So, the apps that are under this larger umbrella of NPCI are all available there, BHIM, any other payment portal, and these are not charged, these are public goods that we have created.”

Earlier this month, NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL) partnered with France-based digital payment company Worldline to launch UPI and RuPay payments in Europe.

“Standing here, I want to reiterate that India’s public goods are available for countries which need it,” she said, adding that India has set global benchmarks in the way in which the digital economy and the digital platform services are functioning.

Talking about the economy, the finance minister said that while a global recession would hurt India’s exports and lead to continuation of the ongoing volatility in currency, there is an overall sense of confidence in India because of the way the country has used technology for public goods. 

“Our economy is doing well, largely because the confidence in what has happened in the last two years palpably felt by people… And that is why I would think the economy’s revival is on a sustained path,” she said.

Further, pointing at India’s recent 5G launch, Sitharaman said that it is completely indigenously built technology. “There could be some parts coming from, say, countries like Korea but certainly not coming from somebody else…so completely indigenous technology that we can now provide 5G for countries which want it.” 

On October 1, Prime Minister Narendra Modi officially launched 5G services in the country starting with eight cities. The service in India will be rolled out in a phased manner.

India has been touting its digital initiatives to take them to the global stage. Last month, the finance minister told US investors that the digital revolution in India offers investment opportunities to them.

India’s digital stack or the India Stack is a set of open APIs and digital public products covering identity, payments, among others. It includes Aadhaar, account aggregator framework, UPI, among others.

Sitharaman, who is currently on a week-long visit to the US, earlier this week, said that the government is also in talks with other countries for acceptance of UPI.