‘Digital public infra helped govt save over $27 bn’

New Delhi: Digital public infrastructure (DPI) has led to savings of over $27 billion in government schemes, and achieve greater financial inclusion in a short period, Economic Affairs Secretary Ajay Seth said on Friday.

The use of direct benefit transfer in the last one decade has ensured money reached to targeted beneficiaries and bogus accounts are weeded out.

Sharing India’s success story on the financial inclusion front, Seth said India has achieved 80 per cent account opening penetration from 20 per cent within a span of 7-8 years with DPI, which would have taken 47 years in the normal course as per a study by the Bank of International Settlements.

“We developed a solution approach for delivering best-in-class services to the last mile and even in the most remote parts of the country. Our achievements are well known in numbers. Since the launch of the digital identity number, Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana in 2014, over 500 million bank accounts have been opened,” he said.

Out of this, 56 per cent of bank account holders are women, and 67 per cent of accounts are in rural and semi-urban areas, he said at a seminar titled ‘Digital Public Infrastructure- Enabler for Advancing Financial Inclusion and Productivity Gains’. “The average balance in these accounts is over Rs 4,000. Our digital payment systems’ UPI crossed 10 billion only in the month of August alone. Today, more than 5.5 crore Jan Dhan accounts are receiving direct benefit transfers, and government schemes have already made savings of over $27 billion,” he said.

Talking about the G20 New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration earlier this month, he said it emphasised the financial inclusion agenda and provided a clear directive for the use of innovative technology to advance financial inclusion and reduce cost. He assured that India stands ready to share its technical capabilities and knowledge for the financial inclusion efforts of the Global South. Citing the IMF and World Bank’s recent report, he said they have indicated now that the DPI approaches are capable of solving societal problems at scale even under the

crisis.