Global Technology Summit 2025: India's role in shaping digital futures
In India, says the writer, the country's Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) is making international waves, having transformed the country's economy, bolstered productivity and supported equitable growth.
Image: File
The Global Technology Summit 2025, organised by India's Ministry of External Affairs, held in New Delhi in April addressed critical global issues such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, digital public infrastructure, geopolitics, data governance, and India's growing influence in global technology cooperation.
Centred around the theme 'Sambhavna' – meaning "possibilities" in Hindi – the summit brought together over 150 experts, policymakers, and academics from around the world to explore critical issues shaping the future of technology.
In India, the country's Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) is making international waves, having transformed the country's economy, bolstered productivity and supported equitable growth.
India's expertise in using technology to boost socio-economic development has been recognised worldwide with the country building a DPI that includes a digital identification layer called Aadhar; a payments system running as a Unified Payment Interface; and, a data exchange layer in its Account Aggregator, amongst other services.
These operations have been curated as foundational layers to build, iterate and innovate upon and the combination of these interventions has transformed the Indian economy, bolstered productivity and supported equitable growth.
The country's DPI has been endorsed by multiple countries and international organisations, such as the International Monetary Fund and most recently the G20.
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ANC MP Imraan Subrathie attended the technology summit and provided context on South Africa's G20 Presidency and the digital technology priorities of the country, while highlighting the need to learn from India's DPI and the positive impact it can play in other developing nations.
'India and South Africa have a very strong relationship, both culturally…a common colonial past of exclusion and a post-colonial past where we need to build inclusive economies and we need to get back into society.
'South Africa has been advancing the agenda of the Global South and developing countries…we have this huge mantle of responsibility of advancing the agenda and growth of countries in the Global South,' Subrathie said at a session of the summit.
He said South Africa's G20 presidency will be used to advance the interests of developing countries.
'We have identified four areas that we want to focus on on the G20 digital economy working group that will meet until the November summit.
'Digital connectivity, DPI, digital innovation systems and the regulation of AI are the key priority areas that the working group is focusing on and hopefully when we might in November, this group would have refined, interrogated and come up with certain resolutions that will take the G20 forward.'
The point was made on why connectivity is crucial for Africa and developing countries as it is the basis for any digital transformation and overcoming the infrastructure and cost challenges is crucial to ensure this happens.
'We have similar challenges to India, we have a huge cash economy, a huge rural base, influx of foreigners who have come in and how do we get them to be meaningful contributors to the national fiscus so we can have a sufficient revenue base to fund infrastructure and DPI and starting with digital identification is the base,' Subrathie said.
India's Minister of External Affairs, Dr. S. Jaishankar, delivered the keynote address at the summit and stressed that the growing number of Global Capability Centers in India - units set up by multinational corporations, often for functions like IT, finance, and research & development - was an important factor in its technology growth.
'Talent, you know, the availability and flow of talent, I think in many ways will be the Achilles heel for industries in many countries.
'And certainly for us in the foreign policy side, that has acquired today much greater salience. Many of our discussions with international partners today revolve around the smooth flow of talent, just as they do about making GCCs easier to function in this country.'
Ultimately the summit reinforced the view that fostering international cooperation in emerging technologies while advancing the cause of sustainable development will be a boost for all countries, especially those in the developing world.
* Dr Govender is an academic and a keen observer of issues related to international relations.
** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.
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