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WASHINGTON, Oct. 14 (PTI) Observing that digitalization has become India’s biggest advantage over the past two years, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Thursday that India’s public goods are available to countries that need them.
Sitharaman said the open-source network created by the Indian government as a public good is helping SMEs to scale up their businesses.
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Standing here, I want to reiterate that India’s public goods are available to the countries they need,” Sitharaman told students at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) during an interactive session on India’s unique digital public goods.
The minister asserted that India has a digital stack that other countries can use.
“So if India today can talk about the digital stack, it’s not just talking about the UPI payment method, which is acceptable today in Singapore, the UAE and many other countries,” she said.
“We’re not just talking about Rupay cards, we’re not talking about credit cards, we’re not talking about checkbooks, we’re talking about QR codes, Android phones, not smartphones, no Apple, or even anything else you can just use 2D code to do business, not only in India but also in countries where we have agreed,” she said.
The National Payments Corporation of India has signed an agreement in France.
Therefore, applications under the larger umbrella of NPCI can be used there and any other payment portal can be used, the minister said.
“These don’t charge for these public goods that we create.”
She reiterated that India’s public goods are also available in other countries, for example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, India created an app where people can find the nearest hospital and vaccinate in stores. The platform records and immediately gives them a certificate on your phone saying you got your first dose at the first hospital, she said, describing other features of the app.
Therefore, Indians traveling abroad do not have to carry the vaccine proof documents.
Now this app is available for any country that needs it. “Now that’s how technology is changing education,” she said.
In response to a question, the minister said technology and its adaptability have been India’s greatest strengths over the past two years.
“In India, digitalization has been the biggest advantage in the last two years. People are the reason for the way they adapt to it,” she said.
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from the Syndicated News feed, the body of the content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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