The contents of this essay are based on conversations during the 7th India-US Forum
The Indian model of DPI followed a framework structured around the question: what solutions will it offer?
Private and public sectors were brought together to build the skeletal framework which is the India Stack. The government created the foundational layer, and the private sector built the innovation layer. These layers were deployed with a trusted partner to bring technologies and transparency in the partnership ecosystem. The final step of the runbook was for the government to consolidate the technology and policy space.
US-India alignment will be necessary for delivering DPIs globally. Defining standards and creating a common regulatory framework and norms for the provision of digital public goods to the international community is central to the partnership. This will allow the partnership to work with other partners in a variety of sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, payments, etc.
These frameworks must be democracy-affirming to catalyze both public and private sources to help create digital infrastructure locally and globally. The partnership can create a safe and trusted DPI architecture that can be exported to the Global South, building transparency and open-source digital solutions to democratize DPIs.
DPI platforms offer startups an easy plug-and-play model to start operating and connecting with customers. Foreign startups and investors have apprehensions about data ownership. Building DPIs on blockchain can assuage these concerns. An additional concern with US-based companies is the dilution of market forces. Startups will have to find business models that work at the large scale of DPIs.
Indian DPIs are different from Chinese investments as they do not create rent-seeking patterns and have no back-channel doors into the political and economic institutions of partner countries.
In India, DPIs created by private actors on government-developed platforms go through a range of democratic processes of scrutiny. This model is applied to all spheres, and trust is built up because the society at large accepts the checks and balances that any democratic system and operational market forces bring to DPIs. The model further creates standards for security and transparency, as they are adopted by partners.
The Global South lacks the talent to localize DPI solutions. There is a need for mass skilling of talent pools to develop these models in the local context. India too, faces a lack of skilled talent for DPIs; however, the developed software industry is adopting DPIs to address this challenge. India-US data governance models will help in creating trust in the supply chain for partners to focus on local skilling.
Global convergence is emerging among partners in the West and some parts of the Global South in areas such as data-protection regimes, allowing for interoperability among platforms and solutions. India can scale the technology exchange between the Global North and South.
People-to-people connections are also helping create trust between tech partners in India and the US. The two countries see increasing convergences in values, leading to massive bipartisan support for India in the US.
The capitalist merits of the India-US exchange create a win-win scenario for business, along with increasing geopolitical convergence between the two countries as trusted partners in the security sphere. This allows for venture capital to flow between the countries and create synergies. Countries such as Israel could become important partners in these synergies. The One Future Alliance gives India an avenue to deal with some of the issues related to inclusivity and addressing the digital divide, particularly with regard to gender, which is acute in the Global South.
The Joint Task Force on Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) is a good starting point for the partnership. Telecommunication and mobile network accessibility form the core of DPI deployment and creating models and services. O-RAN can democratize network access so that users are not bound to standards or proprietary technology. The O-RAN task forces can ensure this accessibility while creating frugal solutions.
