IMF Hails India's Digital Transformation

India has built a world-class digital public infrastructure which is transforming lives and economy and can be a lesson for many countries to follow, an IMF Working Paper said. India Stack is the collective name of a set of commonly used digital public infrastructure (DPIs) in India, according to a PTI report.

It consists of three different layers -- unique identity (Aadhaar), complimentary payments systems (Unified Payments Interface, Aadhaar Payments Bridge, Aadhaar Enabled Payment Service), and data exchange (DigiLocker and Account Aggregator), as per the PTI report.

Together they enable online, paperless, cashless, and privacy-respecting digital access to a variety of public and private services, a working paper titled 'Stacking up the Benefits: Lessons from India's Digital Journey' said.

The benefit of this investment is felt across the country and served India well during the pandemic, it said, adding, Aadhaar, helped facilitate the transfer of social safety net payments directly from the government treasury's accounts to beneficiaries' bank accounts, helping to reduce leakages, curb corruption and providing a tool to effectively reach households to increase coverage, reported PTI.

The government of India estimates that, up to March 2021, about 1.1 per cent of GDP in expenditure was saved due to the digital infrastructure and other governance reforms.