India must lead the creation of a citizen-centric digital economy

Source: The post is based on an article “India must lead the creation of a citizen-centric digital economy” published in Live Mint on 3^rd November 2022.

Syllabus: GS 3 – Information Technology

Relevance: measures and need to develop citizen centric digital economy

News: The article discusses the needs for developing citizen centric digital economy in India.

“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” This statement by Vladimir Lenin is relevant to the context of India.

India has shown remarkable achievement in leveraging technology during the pandemic when rest of the world was behind. It has shown the world the power of an inclusive citizen-centric innovation framework.

The upcoming G20 presidency will also give India a platform to shows its success to the world.

How has India achieved success in digitization?

India has executed many citizen-friendly programs over the last 75 years. However, the Digital India Initiative has been a turning point for India.

Today around 20 platforms run on this initiative which has made Indians to adapt technology in their lives. The digitization is expected to offer a $700 billion opportunity for India by 2030.

These digital initiatives are present across various sectors such as health, agriculture, finance and urban governance and have shown success.

Some of the examples are: Co-Win enabled over 2 billion vaccination doses, the Aadhaar ecosystem has scaled to 1.3 billion registrations, and Bhim UPI has recorded over 6.28 billion transactions in July 2022.

These platforms show India’s success in tech inclusivity, innovation, scale and impact. However, there is a need to focus on other aspect of technology also i.e., using technology to improve human lives.

What steps can be taken by India to improve lives of Indians by using technology?

India has all means (growing technology and innovation ecosystem, etc.) to provide its citizens required digital services.

However, the success of a digital economy depends not only on available means but using those means to provide all citizens equal opportunity and access to critical services.

Therefore, India would need to utilize its opportunity of G20 presidency to create a framework for a citizen-centric digital economy.

The framework should include principles of trust and inclusion, digital public infrastructure, a robust datafication strategy and focus on security.

This would give India an opportunity to lead the world in creating a citizen-centric digital economy.

How can India create a citizen centric digital economy?

A citizen centric economy means that an economy that focuses on the development along with the development of its citizens. i.e., providing affordable healthcare for all, clean energy, food for all, and clean water.

India would need to create strategically important projects that focus on solving real-world challenges and create equal access and opportunities for everyone.

For example, an artificial intelligence (AI)- enabled new or repurposed diabetes drug discovery program.

It should be built on population health data with real time or past data gathered through a network of Internet-of-Medical-Things (IoMT) devices at primary healthcare centres.

This could solve problems of healthcare access and affordability and promote self-reliance in drugs.

It will also help in reducing premature mortality rate from non-communicable diseases and address the needs of a diabetic population of around 100 million in African and West Asian countries

Therefore, as India has done progress in its digital economy, it also requires to develop a citizen centric digital economy to show the path to the world.