Prof. Samarajiva warns against 'reinventing wheel' for digital public infrastructure

Criticises fixation on developing home-grown solutions, by home-grown companies

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THE Government should focus on adopting proven technologies rather than attempting to build its own digital public infrastructure (DPI) from scratch, LIRNEasia Founder and Sarvodaya Chairman Prof. Rohan Samarajiva said, warning that the country risks repeating avoidable mistakes if it tries to "reinvent the wheel.

Speaking at the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) Serendipity Knowledge Program (SKOP) on Digital Transformation: Cybersecurity and Data Protection for Digital Economy Development held in Colombo recently, he said Sri Lanka can learn from India's experience with the Aadhaar system, which became a global model for DPI despite being launched before a data protection law was in place.

"The whole DPI concept is being pushed by India, and people are looking at Aadhaar as the exemplar," Prof. Samarajiva said. "When Aadhaar was rolled out very rapidly, India didn't have a data protection law, and that was seen as a great vulnerability. But they strengthened the design so that, for example, Government agencies could no longer download large chunks of personal data. They tokenised and improved the architecture so that when regulation came, it was really just the icing on the cake."