Written by: Umakant Sir (Founder, Mentor and Civil Servant).
Transforming one village at a time:
In the remote village of Chiragpur, nestled amidst rolling hills, Ramesh, a farmer, faced a challenge that had plagued his ancestors for generations—access to basic services.
The nearest bank was 30 kilometers away, official documents required multiple visits to the district office, and selling his crops involved dealing with middlemen who took hefty cuts. Technology, for him, was as distant as the city lights he could see faintly from his fields at night.
But everything changed one day when the village school introduced a simple smartphone in their digital literacy drive. With a few taps, Ramesh discovered that he could open a bank account using his Aadhaar card. For the first time, he received payments for his crops directly into his account via UPI, eliminating the middleman. Through the village’s lone Wi-Fi hotspot, his daughter attended online classes on ePathshala, and his wife consulted a doctor through telemedicine powered by the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission.
Chiragpur transformed, not through skyscrapers or sprawling highways, but through the invisible yet powerful network of India’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI). From Aadhaar to UPI, DigiLocker to e-Sanjeevani, the village was now interconnected with the world in ways Ramesh had never imagined.
As India scales its digital horizons, the story of Chiragpur exemplifies how DPI is not just about technology but about empowering the last person in the line. It is a journey from exclusion to inclusion, from barriers to boundless opportunities—transforming the nation one village at a time.
What is Digital Public Infrastructure:
Though the term DPI is relatively new, the concept is not. The internet, powered by common protocols like HTTP, HTML, and SMTP, is a prime example of DPI. It ensures global information exchange and interoperability.
For example:
When you go to buy a new SIM card or get a new utility service (Internet/Wi-Fi etc.), you no need to provide any document for this purpose. Thats is a prime example of DPI. The service provider verifies you, through Aadhar authentication and you walk out with your service at a lightning speed (Compare this with the bygone era, when to get a SIM card you had to stand in queue and apply before 6 months or a year in advance).
Transforming India’s Public delivery landscape:
Since the usage and adoption of DPI at scale, the public delivery landscape of India has changed substantially. Here are few “damn” good examples of DPI.
List of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) in India:
DPI Component |
Description |
Applications |
Benefits |
Aadhaar |
Unique biometric-based identity system. |
– Authentication for services |
– Reduces duplication |
|
– Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT). |
– Enables efficient service delivery. |
||
Unified Payments Interface (UPI) |
Real-time payment system enabling instant money transfers via mobile devices. |
– Peer-to-peer transactions |
– Promotes cashless economy |
|
– Merchant payments |
– Low transaction costs. |
||
|
– Bill payments. |
|
||
DigiLocker |
Digital platform for storing and sharing government-issued documents. |
– Storage of ID proofs, certificates, and licenses. |
– Reduces paperwork |
|
– Verification for various services. |
– Provides easy access to documents. |
||
CoWIN |
Platform for COVID-19 vaccination registration and tracking. |
– Vaccine scheduling |
– Streamlines vaccine administration |
|
– Issuance of vaccination certificates. |
– Provides authenticated records. |
||
Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) |
Digital framework for health services. |
– Unified Health ID |
– Enhances healthcare accessibility |
|
– Telemedicine |
– Enables seamless health records sharing. |
||
|
– Health data interoperability. |
|
||
ONDC (Open Network for Digital Commerce) |
Open e-commerce platform promoting inclusivity and competition. |
– E-commerce for small businesses |
– Reduces market dominance |
|
– Interoperable networks for buyers and sellers. |
– Promotes entrepreneurship. |
||
e-Sanjeevani |
Telemedicine platform connecting patients with doctors virtually. |
– Online consultations |
– Improves healthcare access in remote areas |
|
– Specialist referrals. |
– Saves time and resources. |
||
FASTag |
RFID-based electronic toll collection system. |
– Automated toll payments |
– Reduces congestion |
|
– Traffic management. |
– Promotes fuel efficiency. |
||
National Academic Depository (NAD) |
Digital repository for academic certificates. |
– Secure storage and verification of degrees and transcripts. |
– Prevents forgery |
|
– Simplifies access for institutions and students. |
|||
Account Aggregator Framework |
Data-sharing system for financial services. |
– Lending |
– Empowers individuals with control over their data |
|
– Investment management |
– Facilitates easier access to credit. |
||
|
– Personal finance tools. |
|
||
PM-WANI |
Wi-Fi hotspot initiative to provide affordable internet connectivity. |
– Public Wi-Fi access |
– Promotes internet penetration |
|
– Digital inclusivity in rural and urban areas. |
– Supports economic opportunities. |
Recent Posts
Petrol in India is cheaper than in countries like Hong Kong, Germany and the UK but costlier than in China, Brazil, Japan, the US, Russia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, a Bank of Baroda Economics Research report showed.
Rising fuel prices in India have led to considerable debate on which government, state or central, should be lowering their taxes to keep prices under control.
The rise in fuel prices is mainly due to the global price of crude oil (raw material for making petrol and diesel) going up. Further, a stronger dollar has added to the cost of crude oil.
Amongst comparable countries (per capita wise), prices in India are higher than those in Vietnam, Kenya, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Venezuela. Countries that are major oil producers have much lower prices.
In the report, the Philippines has a comparable petrol price but has a per capita income higher than India by over 50 per cent.
Countries which have a lower per capita income like Kenya, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Venezuela have much lower prices of petrol and hence are impacted less than India.
“Therefore there is still a strong case for the government to consider lowering the taxes on fuel to protect the interest of the people,” the report argued.
India is the world’s third-biggest oil consuming and importing nation. It imports 85 per cent of its oil needs and so prices retail fuel at import parity rates.
With the global surge in energy prices, the cost of producing petrol, diesel and other petroleum products also went up for oil companies in India.
They raised petrol and diesel prices by Rs 10 a litre in just over a fortnight beginning March 22 but hit a pause button soon after as the move faced criticism and the opposition parties asked the government to cut taxes instead.
India imports most of its oil from a group of countries called the ‘OPEC +’ (i.e, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Russia, etc), which produces 40% of the world’s crude oil.
As they have the power to dictate fuel supply and prices, their decision of limiting the global supply reduces supply in India, thus raising prices
The government charges about 167% tax (excise) on petrol and 129% on diesel as compared to US (20%), UK (62%), Italy and Germany (65%).
The abominable excise duty is 2/3rd of the cost, and the base price, dealer commission and freight form the rest.
Here is an approximate break-up (in Rs):
a)Base Price | 39 |
b)Freight | 0.34 |
c) Price Charged to Dealers = (a+b) | 39.34 |
d) Excise Duty | 40.17 |
e) Dealer Commission | 4.68 |
f) VAT | 25.35 |
g) Retail Selling Price | 109.54 |
Looked closely, much of the cost of petrol and diesel is due to higher tax rate by govt, specifically excise duty.
So the question is why government is not reducing the prices ?
India, being a developing country, it does require gigantic amount of funding for its infrastructure projects as well as welfare schemes.
However, we as a society is yet to be tax-compliant. Many people evade the direct tax and that’s the reason why govt’s hands are tied. Govt. needs the money to fund various programs and at the same time it is not generating enough revenue from direct taxes.
That’s the reason why, govt is bumping up its revenue through higher indirect taxes such as GST or excise duty as in the case of petrol and diesel.
Direct taxes are progressive as it taxes according to an individuals’ income however indirect tax such as excise duty or GST are regressive in the sense that the poorest of the poor and richest of the rich have to pay the same amount.
Does not matter, if you are an auto-driver or owner of a Mercedes, end of the day both pay the same price for petrol/diesel-that’s why it is regressive in nature.
But unlike direct tax where tax evasion is rampant, indirect tax can not be evaded due to their very nature and as long as huge no of Indians keep evading direct taxes, indirect tax such as excise duty will be difficult for the govt to reduce, because it may reduce the revenue and hamper may programs of the govt.