“WE ARE MOVING TOWARDS FACIAL AUTHENTICATION”

India has, driven by the CoWIN platform, been able to dispense over 197 crore doses of Covid vaccines as on June 28, 2022. The CoWIN platform is a testament to India’s much admired digital push, and work in the digital public infrastructure (DPI) space. Judging by reports, and the assessment of experts, the digital economy could create value in excess of $1 trillion by 2025. National Health Authority (NHA) Chief Executive Officer Dr R.S. Sharma, discusses unlocking the value of the digital public infrastructure (DPI) in a conversation with Jyotsna Sharma of BW Businessworld

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India has made significant progress in the digital public infrastructure (DPI) space. What is the best way to unlock the value of the various platforms?

India has proved to the world that it is second to none in adopting technology and innovating around it. The pandemic highlighted the need for a robust digital public infrastructure (DPI). In particular, the pandemic proved the value of digital systems that were already in use, had basic but flexible functions, and could be applied to the pandemic response effort and other common challenges.

These digital public infrastructure (DPI) systems included digital identification, payments, and data exchanges. None of them were developed with the pandemic in mind, but they became critical enablers of public health, social protection, and economic responses by the government, businesses, organisations, and individuals.

When we began this journey 12 years back with the creation of Digital Identity for every individual, our aim was to provide individuals a method to authenticate their identity in an efficient manner. At the moment, it is biometric and OTP-based, but we are moving towards facial authentication.

Back then, this project was ahead of its time, and today it has become central to various processes such as banking etc. One way of looking at it is a plug and play model – this authentication can be used across various sectors to ease processes. Similarly, for UPI, we thought about the fact that digital interactions might require transactions. And, hence the UPI, which allows digital transactions remotely and securely.