Is it just me, or is everyone suddenly talking about Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI)? Over the past 6 months, I’ve been on more panels and asked to write more articles on this topic than I could have imagined — and yet, as the year draws to a close, the discussion has, if anything, only intensified. Getting from DPI is the flavor of the month and it’s not hard to guess why.
In less than a month, India will assume the presidency of the G20, and there are few more compelling statements than India’s DPI visit as we think we can base our leadership through the broader themes. There is much to learn from how we built population-level digital identity systems, faster payment and data transfer solutions, and how we have been able to use these innovations to empower our people with their data. . Our upcoming G20 presidency will be an ideal opportunity to highlight these achievements.
But if we present the successes of the Indian DPI only in terms of growth, we will be selling ourselves short. Our digital infrastructure is much more than just a tool to help emerging economies move beyond traditional stages of development. The governance principles at the core of India’s DPI offer solutions to some of the problems that even developed economies grapple with. They are not only a means to accelerate development, but a new approach to data governance overall.
To understand what I mean, we need to go back to the very beginning. The Internet was the world’s first major piece of digital public infrastructure. It was built on open protocols and designed to be interoperable. Because of this, private enterprise could innovate on it, resulting in its rapid spread around the world.
But as the customer base of private enterprises grew, they began to realize the value contained in the repositories of data they accumulated from their users. They built large-scale, multidimensional platforms to further concentrate the value of data generated by powerful network effects. As a result of this asymmetric access, private enterprises benefited disproportionately from the individuals concerned with the data.
We attempted to correct this disparity by implementing data rules that limit how data is collected and used. We have prohibited the processing of data without consent and have restricted its use for purposes not previously specified. We limit how much data can be collected and how long it can be retained.
This approach has been less than successful. Despite these measures, private enterprises still do pretty much whatever they want with our data. All we have done is increase the cost of compliance, which makes no difference to the large companies that can afford to pay this cost. What we didn’t realize was that the rules we thought would limit how companies used our data would make it even more difficult for us to profit from these private companies’ data. In an effort to prevent data controllers from obtaining a disproportionate value from our data, we have made it more difficult to profit from our data.
We need a new approach – one that will allow for more equitable use of data. Instead of restricting how private enterprises use data, we need to make data more accessible to those who need to be able to access it.
This is the problem India’s digital public infrastructure seeks to fix. Inspired by this design philosophy of the early Internet, India has built its digital infrastructure to be open and interoperable. While the core is controlled by the public sector, the infrastructure is designed so that private enterprises can build on it, developing solutions and user experiences that will allow individuals to access their data and determine whether its how is used. In essence, it is a techno-legal solution to data governance – one that allows regulators to regulate and innovators to innovate.
Since all protocols are under the control of the regulator, market participation rules can be encoded directly into the infrastructure. Which means that regulators can programmatically reduce transaction costs and establish a level-playing field for market participants. Since the private sector is left to develop market-knowing strategy and end-user experience, we can be assured of product innovation and competitive consumer-focused results. This approach has resulted in deep penetration of our core DPI across the country.
All economies benefit from such an approach, regardless of their stage of development. For developing economies, it enables inclusion, allowing a way in for those otherwise excluded from the formal financial system. It lets individuals use their digital footprint to access credit for which they may not otherwise be eligible. For developed economies whose digital infrastructure is built by private enterprises, this provides a way for individuals to access their data contained in these silos. It does this by facilitating micro-portability through digital consensus over time that allows the flow of data between multiple participants in the ecosystem.
It would be a mistake to think of India’s DPI story as a simple technology drama. In a world where we are becoming increasingly dependent on data for all our work, this is a new approach to data governance. The set of data principles it describes would go on to define the relationship between data and society.
Rahul Mathan is a partner at Trilegal and also has a podcast called Ex Machina. His Twitter handle is @matthan. Is
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