Airpay payment gateway: Foreign media: India's digital revolution is a mixed blessing

According to an EFE report from New Delhi on 6 November, India's public digital infrastructure boasts 138 million digital identities and more than 10.5 billion online transactions per month, figures that are truly remarkable. India would like to export its model, but the high level of data centralisation and the serious issue of data breaches raise concerns.

The term "India Stack" is a popular name for a set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) developed by the Government of India since 2009.

One of the most dramatic aspects of India's digital revolution is the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which allows for instant money transfers, and QR codes can be found everywhere, from the checkout counters of large shops to the humblest street stalls. Raj Kumari, a fruit vendor, told a reporter, "I started using UPI over a year ago and customers often ask for it, but still nearly half of the population pays in cash."

The situation is somewhat similar in rural areas, where even some beggars have their own UPI accounts, although this is not yet common.

Kumari explained that fruit wholesalers do not accept electronic payments. Moreover, according to the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA) 2021 report, only 411 TP3T of Indian men own a smartphone, compared to 251 TP3T of women.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has termed India's API system as an open source gift to the world. Speaking at the G20 meeting in Bangalore, India, he said, "This is being done to ensure that no one is left behind."

However, the success story told by the Indian government contrasts with the scepticism raised by cases of massive data breaches. Recently, the data of 81.5 million Indians was found on the internet following a massive data breach at the Indian Council of Medical Research.

Prateek Wagler, policy director at the Internet Freedom Foundation, told EFE that although India recently passed a data protection bill, it is effectively null and void due to a lack of regulations to enforce the law.

For this activist, the problems with India's digital public infrastructure are fundamental. He laments, "I understand that digitisation can help address service delivery failures, but it doesn't solve all the problems."