The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states have adopted India’s proposal to support the development and adoption of the country’s digital public infrastructure (DPI). The proposal includes platforms such as Aadhaar, united payments interface (UPI), and DigiLocker. The adoption of India’s proposal was made during a meeting of the SCO ministers responsible for the development of information and communication technology (ICT), which India was chairing.
During the meeting, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister of Communications, Electronics and Information Technology and Railways, urged other member states to assess, evaluate, and adopt India Stack, emphasising the importance of interoperability and higher digital inclusion. He said this DPI is very important from the perspective of having completion, making sure that technology is democratised, and making sure of digitally inclusive growth among member states.
Vaishnaw also highlighted the need for interoperability between the different systems being developed by member states and recognised the need for an organisation to set common standards for the interoperability of digital systems.
Further, India shared its plans to invest $3 billion to provide mobile connectivity to villages in remote areas and $5 billion to bring broadband connectivity to all 250,000 gram panchayats. Additionally, India will chair the Annual Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) summit in December 2023.
The SCO is a regional intergovernmental organisation comprising eight member countries, including India, China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Pakistan. The organisation focuses on regional security, economic, and cultural cooperation.
