India's DPIs may help soft power projection: Former NHA chief Sharma

The global proliferation of digital public infrastructures (DPIs) can be part of India’s soft power projection, in turn helping “increase our influence" around the world, said Ram Sewak Sharma, former chief executive of the Centre’s National Health Authority (NHA).

- Shouvik Das

In an interview on the sidelines of the first Digital Public Dialogues, a government-backed discussion forum in Delhi on Monday, Sharma underlined the importance of DPIs, which were a part of India’s agenda during its G20 presidency that concluded on 10 September.

“China has a huge amount of money, which can be used to influence global stakeholders. What we have is knowledge, through which we have created our DPIs. This is our soft power—in a way, we try and help the world solve their problems across different countries. By doing this, we increase our influence—it’s not always in terms of gaining in a limited monetary sense. One should look at gains from a thought leadership point of view, that’s more important," said Sharma.