"Digital Innovation, Democratic Values Can Co-Exist": PM At NDTV Summit

India showed the world that digital innovation and democratic values can co-exist, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his keynote address at the NDTV World Summit today.

The Prime Minister said India's Digital Public Infrastructure is a key talking point at global summits. "Paul Romer (Nobel laureate and former Chief Economist of the World Bank) is here. We have had many discussions. Paul has praised India's digital infrastructure, including Aadhaar and DigiLocker. In world summits, people are surprised at how India developed such a digital public infrastructure." 

The Prime Minister said India did not have the first-mover advantage during the Internet era. "In the countries that had this advantage, private companies led the digital push. A revolution came, but its benefit was limited. India gave a new model to the world. India democratised technology and showed the world the way to digital public infrastructure," the Prime Minister said.

In India, he said, the government creates a platform and it undergoes several rounds of innovations. "Jandhan, Aadhaar and mobile connectivity have become a seamless system of fast and leakage-free service delivery. "Look at UPI, it has led to an expansion of fintech in India. More than 500 million digital transactions are happening through UPI daily. And this is not driven by big corporates, but by small shopowners and street vendors."

Mentioning the government's PM Gati Shakti and ONDC initiatives, the Prime Minister said, "India has shown digital innovation and democratic values can co-exist. India has shown that technology is a tool for inclusion, transparency and empowerment, not for control and division."

This is the most important time in the 21st century, he said. "We need stability and sustenance for growth and India is working on it. This is the first time in six decades that the people of India have given a government a mandate for the third term. This is a message of stability.

"Climate change is now a global problem and India is trying to take a lead in this fight too. Our contribution is negligible in global climate change, but we have made green transmission the fuel for growth," he said.