Date: 19/12/2022

Relevance: GS-3: Indian Economy and issues relating to Planning, Mobilization of Resources, Growth, Development, and Employment.

Key Phrases: Inclusive Digital Growth, online payment platforms, UPI, RTGS, IMPS, interoperability, RBI Kehta Hai, digital intelligence, multi-stakeholder coordination, Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022, minimal human intervention, agile internet governance.

Why in news?

• Inclusive Digital Growth is quintessential to economic growth and social prosperity. With this important techade, India needs to focus more on empowering weaker sections.

Digitization of the financial system:

• Online payment system:
  • India’s online payment platforms (that is, UPI, RTGS, IMPS) have emerged as a lifeline of the financial system.
  • The RBI has promoted its 24X7X365 availability and interoperability and brought in various other initiatives, which are a boon for the common man in terms of convenience and cost.
  • UPI has 373 banks linked to it, with monthly volumes of over 730 crore transactions and a monthly value of about ₹12-lakh crore.
• Role of Internet Governance:
  • Such a widespread adoption would not have been possible without an agile internet governance mindset of the entities involved, led by the RBI.
• Concerns:
  • Along with digital payments growth, concerns are rising over online payment frauds like phishing/spam calls.
  • However, to the credit of the RBI and agencies involved, the extensive measures taken for customer education and awareness have been instrumental in safeguarding customers from online fraud and protecting their rights.

Efforts to improve safety:

• Awareness campaign by RBI:
  • The RBI’s extensive and easy-to-understand campaign of ‘RBI Kehta Hai’ educates the public on safe banking and financial practices.
  • This campaign keeps people at the centre of technological developments and builds ‘digital intelligence’ among users.
• Safe and consumer-friendly interfaces:
  • Banks, platform and app providers, telcos, etc., do their best to create secure, safer, and consumer-friendly interfaces.
  • Such measures being customer orientated have nurtured trust in the online payment systems in India.
• Internet Governance:
  • This shows that for sustainable digital growth, awareness among key decision-makers and coordination are required to implement governance.
  • This multi-stakeholder coordination is increasingly seen in regulations and standardization.
  • Data Protection:
    • The recently published Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022 in India, and the draft Cyber Resilience Act in the EU emphasize the need for governance on different aspects — personal data and IoT, respectively.
    • There is proactive implementation by policymakers in internet governance for providing due protection against privacy and security risks.

New tech:

• With technologies like 5G, VR, AI, etc., the internet is ushering in a transformation in digitization and respective applications which will deliver more efficient, more automated, and more critical activities through an increasingly complex network of computers and devices, where IOT and personal devices will not only multiply but will be of far varied kinds than at present.
• This will have minimal human intervention but a greater impact on individuals and society.
• The manufacturing, health, and automotive sectors will be the first ones to see the such transformation.

Bridging the Digital Divide:

• Inclusion is critical as technology creates opportunities but also risks increasing the digital divide, especially between urban and rural India.
• What is needed now?
  • improved access at an affordable cost,
  • strengthening of rural digital infrastructure, and
  • educating people on the use of technology.
• The scale of internet penetration in India and the sheer quantum of data consumed has rapidly driven down costs; at roughly 9 cents per 1GB of data, Indians have the cheapest access to mobile data in the world.
• Meanwhile, BharatNet is the world’s largest rural connectivity program which aims to provide a minimum of 100 Mbps broadband connectivity to all 250,000-gram panchayats in the country, covering 625,000 villages.
• However, the third aspect cannot be achieved by the government’s efforts alone, and the private sector will have to play a supporting role.

Digital literacy:

• The adoption of digital services starts with digital literacy. We need to utilize the extensive network of post offices for the promotion, publicity, and marketing of the Digital India initiative.
• The ‘train the trainer approach’ can be used to spread knowledge of digital services.
• Moreover, all stakeholders involved in this effort—the Central and state governments, industry bodies, etc.—need to work in partnership to ensure smooth functioning.

Cyber security:

• Digital transformation needs countries and policymakers to work together to deal with cybersecurity and have some standards prescribed.
• Otherwise, it will be vulnerable to cyberattacks, which can lead to serious consequences considering the level of automation.
• The government must educate and inform citizens and institutions about the risks and good cyber security practices while conducting electronic transactions.

Conclusion:

• A trusted internet is essential for achieving a far broader adoption of technologies, products, and services, and, therefore, an intelligent and agile internet governance embedded firmly in the mindset of all stakeholders is becoming extremely crucial.
• India has a challenging road ahead but has an enormous multi-stakeholder commitment to make it happen earliest.

Source: The Hindu BL

Mains Question:

Q. “Inclusive Digital Growth is quintessential to economic growth and social prosperity.” In light of the statement, discuss the importance of ‘Inclusive Digital Growth’ for ‘Inclusive Growth’ of India.