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India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and Papua New Guinea’s Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to share India Stack. It is a comprehensive set of indigenously developed open APIs and digital public goods designed to enable widespread identity, data, and payment services.
The MoU was the result of a meeting between Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MeitY Union Minister, and Timothy Mark Masiu, MICT Minster last week. Both parties have decided to cooperate on IT, emerging technologies, and the implementation of India Stack.
Chandrasekhar highlighted the importance of India Stack’s offerings and claimed that the current government has “a clear vision for India’s technology capabilities”. The availability of India Stack now extends to any nation interested in embracing the digitalisation trend, which has rapidly progressed in recent times.
Previously, discussions around digitisation revolved around the gap between advanced nations and others. However, with collaborations like this one, like-minded countries can work together to innovate and implement Digital Public Infrastructures (DPIs). This fosters a technology and innovation-sharing ecosystem, allowing for cooperative growth and progress in the digital world.
During the event, the discussions revolved around critical elements of digital transformation, encompassing various aspects such as DPI, digital identity, digital payment, data exchange, data governance, data protection policies, Internet, and mobile connectivity.
The MoU aims to strengthen capabilities, facilitate sharing, and foster collaboration in the realm of population-scale DPI and transformational platforms/projects. It is anticipated that this collaboration will lead to advancements in living standards, as well as improved efficiency and transparency in governance practices.
According to its official website, India Stack is the moniker for a set of open APIs and digital public goods that aim to unlock the economic primitives of identity, data, and payments at a population scale. Despite its name, the vision of India Stack extends beyond the borders of India and is applicable to any nation, whether developed or emerging. While initially conceptualised and implemented in India, it has gained widespread adoption by billions of individuals and businesses, leading to significant advancements in financial and social inclusion. India Stack’s success has positioned the country for the Internet Age and serves as a model for other nations seeking to enhance their digital infrastructure and promote inclusive growth.
Last month, India signed MoUs with Armenia, Sierra Leone, Suriname, and Antigua and Barbuda, to share India Stack. As OpenGov Asia reported, the government expressed its intention to provide India Stack, either in its entirety or specific components, to enterprises and countries worldwide. The goal is to enable and support innovation while promoting seamless integration, execution, and implementation of digital transformation initiatives. India Stack encompasses various applications, including the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), India’s instant payments system, Aadhaar, which serves as the government’s digital identity card, and DigiLocker, a secure platform for accessing documents on a public cloud.
The MoUs were signed at the third meeting of the G20 Digital Economy Working Group (DEWG). During this, closed-door discussions were held among the G20 representatives, invited countries, and international organisations to address priority areas such as DPI for judicial systems and regulations, digital document exchange for efficient service delivery, and public key infrastructure (PKI) for DPI.
