Looking beyond the ‘tech’ aspects of digital public infrastructure to how it interacts with users as individuals, as collectives, and in societies.
Despite the ‘openness’ of the UPI architecture, a concentration of market power in the UPI ecosystem is no secret.
In this research study for the Lancet Citizen’s Commission on Reimagining India’s Health Systems, we highlight how healthcare came to be seen as a politically viable and electorally rewarding issue in some, but not nearly enough, States.
While the amendments being proposed are well-intentioned, they are likely to present many operational challenges for businesses and the government, besides risking the freedom of speech of India’s digital citizens.
Even though RBI’s no-card-storage norms are well-intentioned, a hurried transition can end up disrupting digital payments in 2022, adversely affecting both customers as well as merchants.
India’s privacy law must balance the rights of children with online safety. The blanket requirement for parental consent for those aged below 18 years must make way for a graded approach along with a digital literacy curriculum.
Visual presentation of consent and privacy policies, as opposed to a tick-the-right-box approach, is a way forward.
From supporting countries in setting up their own digital ID and payments systems to sharing CoWin know-how, India’s recent collaborations hint at a commitment to building and strengthening its digital diplomacy.
With regulatory ambiguity on key issues, the Indian startup story is at a crossroads today. While the market seems bullish about their prospects, we risk tempting Indian founders to register their startups outside India to avoid onerous compliance.
We owe it to India’s daughters and their parents the same right to care for each other and be cared for by each other as we have for sons in our society, in life or in death.
This International Women’s Day is a reminder that we must strive for a gender-inclusive economic recovery and not lose the strides made in women’s empowerment in the last few decades on account of the pandemic.
India has embarked on a unique journey of tech led service delivery and this is reinforced through commitments in the 2022 Union Budget. It is now critical to shift the focus to the ‘non-tech’ layers of our digital infrastructure, by prioritizing principles of data protection, universal access and accountability.
