Digital public infrastructure will drive the future, not big tech: Amitabh Kant

The future will be driven by digital public infrastructure and not by big tech.  With India leading the way, the locally developed DPI will be transferred worldwide in the coming years, according to G-20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant

“There’s a huge opportunity for all young entrepreneurs to take it to the rest of the world and that is what is going to happen to digital public infrastructure in the coming decades,” Kant said at an event ‘We Made in India.’

Kant emphasized the need for India to foster its ecosystem of start-ups, highlighting the importance of digital tech growth and manufacturing to create jobs. | Photo Credit: KAMAL NARANG

In India, DPI is enabled through Aadhar as the identity document and payments through Unified Payments Interface (UPI) allied to service and data aggregators. Kant pointed out that during the G-20 deliberations “the world accepted the definition of digital public infrastructure.”

On the growing ecosystem of entrepreneurs and start-ups, Kant said that India needs to fire on all cylinders. “We need to do a lot of digital technology growth. We need a range of new companies to grow… and digitally we will grow because the cost of data is low.”  Manufacturing also had to grow in a big way “because that will create jobs.”

Deep tech was critical for India and Kant said that there was a need for a fund of funds for the deep tech sector in India. He also exhorted domestic funds such as insurance companies and pension funds to invest in start-ups, as 75 per cent of the funding is currently from international sources. “There has to be a quantum jump from domestic sources into our startup movement.“

He stressed on the importance of self-regulation and good corporate governance among start-ups. He said, “There should be good auditing, there should be good finance, there should be good mentoring and this should happen on a self-regulatory basis.”

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