India's Global Rule-Maker Ambitions: Tejasvi Surya's Vision

New Delhi, Nov 23 (PTI) Having done numerous innovations on the technology and policy front, India should now position itself to be a rule maker at the global level, BJP MP Tejasvi Surya said on Thursday.

While speaking at the Digital Acceleration and Transformation Expo (DATE), Surya said that as part of Sustainable Development Goals, India has been able to bring 13.5 crore people out of poverty by leveraging technology for financial inclusion through Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and mobile combination.

"India has lost out by not being a global voice at the standard setting table. I think the time now has come for India to not position itself as a rule-taker but primarily as a rule-maker. To do that, it is important for India to be a vital voice at standard-setting bodies, where we can contribute by our experiences to what we have done at the population scale in India," Surya said.

India's vision to have ubiquitous coverage under 6G technology was recently accepted by UN body ITU's Study Group.

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) is responsible for developing international mobile telecommunications standards.

Surya said that even at the legal and policy level, India has a lot to offer and can help countries in the global south by helping them build a framework that can bring development and financial inclusion at their population scale.

Surya cited an example of a consent manager framework that has been envisaged by the country's data protection bill and can be shared with other countries to empower people.

"The Data Protection Act envisages a very interesting and novel techno-legal solution, which is not thought of in the American legislation, or the European GDPR or Singaporean or Australian legislation.

"In the coming year, we will not only be an important voice to leverage digital public goods infrastructure, which we have already built but we will also be empowered if we build institutions which can be important voices at the global standard-setting agencies and also in terms of providing policy innovation to the world," he said.

India has already signed agreements with countries like Armenia, Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone, Suriname, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Mauritius to offer them support in the deployment of digital public infrastructure.

DPI refers to blocks or platforms, such as digital identification, payment infrastructure and data exchange solutions that help countries deliver essential services to their people, empowering citizens and improving lives by enabling digital inclusion. A case in point is the India Stack -- the identity system Aadhaar, payment platform UPI and others, all of which have been receiving ringing praises globally.

Surya said that providing access to credit is one of the top priorities that the country will look into for growing the economy.

He said that not only about 91,000 start-ups registered with the DPIIT (Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade) are driving the growth of the country, but 45 crore small merchants, who have received their first credit through the Mudra loan scheme, have been instrumental in driving the country's economy.