IIT Kanpur holds talk on digital public infrastructure

NEW DELHI: RS Sharma, visiting professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Kanpur), delivered a talk on India's digital public infrastructure (DPI) as part of the "Amrit Kaal - Vimarsh" campus dialogue. This initiative aims to inspire students and academics to contribute to a development-centered ecosystem.

Sharma, an alumnus of IIT Kanpur, is a former civil servant who has held positions such as chief executive officer of the National Health Authority and head of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

He is also recognised for his pivotal role as the first director general of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), where he spearheaded the creation of the Aadhaar system.

In his enlightening talk, Sharma elucidated how the country has made remarkable strides in the digital realm through the DPI approach, highlighting its significance for India's digital future. The G20's leaders' declaration recognised DPI as an evolving concept involving shared digital systems, driven by both public and private sectors, founded on secure infrastructure, open standards, and open-source software, ultimately enabling large-scale service delivery.

Sharma pointed out that although the term DPI may be relatively new, the concept isn't. Examples like the Internet, with its common protocols, and telecom standards like GSM, SMS, CDMA, and IEEE, demonstrate the foundation of DPI.

Aadhaar's development highlighted essential lessons in minimalism, federated architecture, authentication's purpose agnosticism, privacy, security, unbundling of functions, open APIs, and a layered approach that laid the foundation for India's DPI philosophy.

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Sharma explained that DPI encompasses three integral layers -- market, governance, and technology standards. The market layer involves competitive players designing inclusive products, while the governance layer establishes legal frameworks and public programs to drive adoption. Technology standards, particularly for identity, payments, and data sharing, enable interoperability and shared standards, shaping the DPI's structure and functionality.