NEW DELHI: Digital public infrastructure (DPI), which currently contributes about 1% to India’s GDP, could grow to around 4% by 2030, government think tank NITI Aayog said on Monday, saying it should be tapped as a key engine of growth.
NITI Aayog, while releasing a report setting out the strategy for DPI 2.0, said the next phase will build on the momentum needed to achieve the goal of ‘Viksit Bharat’ or a developed India.
The think tank said India’s existing digital public infrastructure, referred to as DPI 1.0, has already enabled a surge in services, financial inclusion and economic activity previously not possible on a large scale. This has created a growth trajectory that is non-linear and is accelerating as more individuals and businesses go digital.
The NITI Aayog said the scope of DPI should now be expanded in the next phase to address the structural constraints that limit growth among the lower and middle income groups.
He added that artificial intelligence (AI) represents a major productivity lever with the potential to address complex systemic challenges that hinder inclusive growth. Integrating artificial intelligence into the DPI framework, he said, could make advanced tools available to businesses and citizens, yielding exponential gains.
The report traced India’s digital transformation to core platforms such as Aadhaar, Jan Dhan bank accounts and the widespread use of mobile devices, which enabled the Direct Benefit Transfer System, now the world’s largest government-to-individual payment infrastructure, to help reduce leakages in welfare delivery.
It said the most significant acceleration came with the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which was launched in 2016. Subsequent reforms, including the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the FASTag system in 2017, helped create a more unified national market, improve logistics and reduce transit delays, while drawing small businesses into the formal economy.
On India’s long-term growth path, the NITI Aayog said that achieving the development goal by 2047 will not follow a linear trajectory.
“It requires an engine of exponential, non-linear growth. DPI’s approach, with its specific architecture and principles, is that engine. It is uniquely positioned to drive this transformation by fundamentally changing how our economy works,” the report said.
“Over the past decade, digital public infrastructure has demonstrated the transformative potential of shared digital foundations in expanding access, improving service delivery, deepening inclusion and accelerating innovation at the population scale. The next phase of this journey must move decisively from grassroots inclusion towards enabling livelihoods, empowering people and unleashing new engines of growth across sectors and regions,” said NITI Aayog report chair Suman Beryog.
