India displays digital infrastructure for solutions at population scale in Japan G7 meet

The Group of Seven (G7) countries’ digital and technology ministers met in Japan on Thursday, where India demonstrated how digital infrastructure is being constructed to deliver answers on a population scale, as described by Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

On April 29-30, India was invited to attend the G7 Digital and Technology Ministers Meeting in Takasaki, Gunma. This symposium is focused on emerging and disruptive technologies, data flows and digital infrastructure, artificial intelligence, and Internet governance.

The G7 is an intergovernmental forum comprised of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The European Union is a non-listed member. Vaishnaw, the Indian representative at the meeting, gave a presentation on India’s digital public infrastructure.

“India is clearly emerging as a technology powerhouse and a trusted partner because of PM Modi ji’s visionary programmes like Digital India and Make in India. Today globally, there is a strong interest in learning from India’s growth journey as technology developers,” said Minister Ashwani Vaishnaw upon his return.

G7 members lauded India’s deployment of digital infrastructure

In the press conference, the minister briefed that India demonstrated how digital infrastructure is being developed to give population-scale solutions. Aadhaar, UPI, Cowin, and other use cases were showcased. Representatives from member countries lauded India’s achievement in developing and deploying digital public infrastructure.

Moreover, India provided information on its efforts for establishing an indigenous 4G telecom stack and in rolling out 5G. India has committed to a 4G/5G communications stack based on Open RAN.

India has invited technical experts from G7 member countries for testing out its telecom stack on global standards. The countries showed great interest in learning about the India telecom stack and 5G rollout, the minister said in a press briefing.