FM shares success of Aadhaar-enabled digital public infra

BENGALURU: A high-level symposium on digital public infrastructure (DPI) was held on Thursday at the outset of the first G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) meeting in Bengaluru.

The symposium, moderated by Infosys' co-founder Nandan Nilekani, saw the participation of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Indonesia Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, Brazil Central Bank Governor Roberto de Oliveira Campos and Bank for International Settlements General Manager Neto Agustin Carstens.

Sitharaman shared the success of India's Aadhaar-enabled digital public infrastructure such as Unified Payments Interface (UPI), CoWin, Account Aggregator, eKYC in leading the economic transformation and empowerment of billions of people in India.

eKYC, often called paperless KYC, is the process of electronically verifying the customer's credentials.

The high-level symposium on DPI also saw insightful discussions on inclusive growth, resilience and innovation. The two-day FMCBG meeting, spread over three sessions, will cover issues such as strengthening multilateral development banks, financing for resilient, inclusive and sustainable "cities of tomorrow", leveraging Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) for advancing financial inclusion and productivity gains.

On the sidelines of the FMCBG meeting, a curtain raiser on the RBI's digital currency was also showcased.

Digital Rupee, India's Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), is issued by the Reserve Bank of India as a digital token representing legal tender and is considered fiat money.

Digital Rupee is issued in the same denominations as the paper currency and coins currently in use.