PM
WANI AND INDIA'S DIGITAL PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE – POLITY
News:
India’s leap into digital
public infrastructure-driven future
What's
in the news?
●
India’s Digital Public Infrastructure
(DPI) has a major contribution towards Digital India vision resulting in a
massive increase in data consumption.
●
However, the gap between demand and
affordable supply of data remains quite wide, especially for poor households
and rural India.
Digital
Public Infrastructure (DPI):
●
It is an open-source identity platform
that can be used to access a wide variety of government and private services by
building applications and products on a set of application programming
interfaces (APIs) like India Stack.
●
It includes digital forms of ID and
verification, civil registration, payment (digital transactions and money
transfers), data exchange, and information systems.
●
It is customisable, localisable,
interoperable and leverages public data for open innovation models.
Digital
India Programme:
●
The Digital India Programme has three main
vision areas:
○
Connectivity
○
Software and services on demand
○
Digital empowerment of citizens.
●
The connectivity landscape has been
transformed in the last seven years due to multiple factors like the boom in
mobile telephony, 4G coverage, significant reduction in tariffs and increased
smartphone penetration.
●
Enabling policies like Net Neutrality and
focus on building DPI, particularly Digital ID and UPI, have further
contributed to the Digital India vision, resulting in a massive increase in
digital transactions.
Impact
of Digital India Programme:
●
Since its launch in 2015, the Digital
India campaign has left its impact in various fields and could boost GDP up to
$1 trillion by 2025.
●
Around 12000 post office branches in the
rural areas have been linked electronically.
●
Healthcare and education sector has also
seen a boost through DPI. Improvement in online infrastructure will further
enhance the economy of the country.
Challenges
of Digital India Programme:
1.
Digital illiteracy:
●
Where there is still 25% illiteracy, the
target of high levels of digital illiteracy is one of the biggest challenges.
According to a 2016 report of ASSOCHAM-Deloitte, around 950 million Indians are
still not on the internet. India has 1600 languages and dialects.
●
Non availability of digital services in
local Languages is a great barrier in digital literacy.
2.
The Gap Between Demand and Affordable Supply:
●
The gap between demand (India’s per capita
data consumption stands at a whopping 19.5 GB per month) and affordable supply
remains quite wide, especially for poor households and rural India.
3.
Financial:
●
Though there are resources with India but
there is a huge capital cost which is to be invested and the fruits of the
investment will be received after a few years.
4.
Politico-administrative:
●
Integration of various government
departments needs to be done which has technical as well as corporate issues.
●
Also, the middle man policy will be
eliminated completely, hence there will be imminent resistance from the working
staff.
5.
Security:
●
There is cyber threat all over the globe
and digital India will not be any exception.
●
Hence, we need a strong anti-cybercrime
team of about 1 million trained cyber security professionals by 2025.
6.
Infrastructural:
●
India’s digital infrastructure is
comprehensively inadequate to tackle the growing increase in digital
transactions. The challenge faced by the programme is slow and delayed
infrastructure development.
7.
Electronics Manufacturing:
●
India stands to import three quarters of
the $400bn worth of electronics products it will consume in the next five
years.
●
Hardware exports as of now are still under
$10bn. This calls for a very big ramp-up in local manufacturing.
8.
Connectivity to remote areas:
●
It is a mammoth task to have connectivity
with each and every village, town and city.
●
The problem of connectivity is a complex
issue because every state has different laws pertaining to its execution.
Government’s
Initiative Towards Affordable Supply of Data: PM-WANI
●
The creation of inter-operable public
Wi-Fi hotspots was one such idea proposed by TRAI in 2017.
●
Similar in concept to the PCOs, it
proposed to create millions of interoperable Wi-Fi hotspots called Public
Data Offices (PDOs), which would foster a shared infrastructure as a
last-mile distribution of broadband in sachet-sized packages of Rs 5-10.
●
The idea was successfully piloted and
submitted to the Department of Telecom (DOT) as Wi-Fi Access Network Interface
(WANI), in March 2017.
●
This transformational idea- PM-WANI- was
approved by the union cabinet in December 2020.
●
Under this, no license or permit was needed for operations to start and
start-ups who had participated in the initial pilot have already started the
work.
Advantages
of PM-WANI:
1.
Provides Affordable Data to Poor Families:
●
More than 1.5 lakh Wi-Fi hotspots have
been installed (In the last year alone) and more than a million people are
getting unlimited internet daily by paying just Rs 5-10.
2.
Another DPI in the Connectivity Field:
●
By introducing various entities such as
PDOs, PDOAs, app providers, and a central registry, an open and scalable
framework has been created.
●
In the way UPI transformed the financial
space in India, PM WANI is going to become a unique DPI in connectivity.
3.
Offers a Business Opportunity:
●
This framework offers a compelling
business opportunity for aggregators as it allows unbundling of internet
distribution at the last mile, eliminating the need for additional licensing
fees.
4.
Win-Win Situation for All:
●
Currently, India’s home broadband
penetration is one of the lowest in the world.
●
PM-WANI presents a golden opportunity to
accelerate high-speed unlimited internet penetration, bridging the digital
divide and empowering communities nationwide.
●
It provides a robust foundation for
delivering affordable internet access to a significant portion of society.
●
By creating a win-win situation for all
key stakeholders, PM-WANI also nurtures the growth of local nano entrepreneurs.
●
These last-mile providers, found in small
shops, local establishments, and even households, augment their monthly
earnings while promoting internet usage.
WAY
FORWARD:
●
Although infrastructure laid out by major
companies like RailTel and GAIL already exists, it is currently underutilized.
●
Moreover, many large Internet Service
Providers (ISPs) are hesitant to enter underserved areas.
●
This presents a golden opportunity for the
PM-WANI framework to flourish. It also benefits ISPs and Telcos as they end up
selling more bandwidth by making their end customers retailers.
PM-WANI needs to be
promoted by all stakeholders, as it is uniquely Indian in its approach of
interoperability, openness, and scalability. Hopefully, it will accelerate like
UPI and the other DPIs being built in India.