Google Cloud to help India export its Digital Public Infrastructure
Bundles free government apps to help digital diplomacy – and maybe find some new customers
Google Cloud will help India to spread its Digital Public Infrastructure – the suite of government apps it offers to help other nations – through the development of a "DPI in a box" tool.
The tool is billed as "a plug and play model that can empower nations around the world to build their digital infrastructure and accelerate their growth."
India's Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) includes the Aadhaar identity scheme, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) that eases money transfers among many players, and the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) that allows merchants to sell their wares on many e-commerce sites. The tools were all developed to run at India scale – so have bene proven to work for hundreds of millions of users. India offers them at no cost, to help other nations kickstart their online efforts – and to open doors for its diplomats, who in recent years have had declaration of support for DPI included in the communiqués that follow big global summits.
Google's partner in this endeavor is the non-profit EkStep Foundation. The organization, and its education-focused open source digital platform-pushing agenda, is led by Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani. According to its LinkedIn page, the org's leadership team was "instrumental" in developing the Aadhaar project.
The Chocolate Factory has already helped to spread UPI. Now it has the chance to find new government customers, if they decide to use Indian DPI.
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Google Cloud's India MD, Bikram Singh Bedi, called the event at which the announcement was made – the 10th edition of Google for India – "a defining moment for India's digital future."
At the event, Google also announced it will bring its AI offering, Gemini, to all of it products and support it in nine different languages – starting with Hindi, which has already been rolled out.
"Our most advanced AI model, Gemini, will be hosted entirely in India, strengthening data sovereignty and giving organizations more control," explained Bedi.
"The open source AI Agent Framework, powered by Gemini, will now be available across Beckn-enabled open networks, simplifying access to services for millions," he added. Beckn is a protocol that allows the creation of peer-to-peer networks and is part of ONDC.
Google also announced it has expanded the number of loan providers Indian users can access using Google Pay.
One of Google's new partners is Muthoot Finance, which provides gold-backed loans.
Gold remains important in India. The precious metal is often gifted for weddings, festivals and other events, and relied on as an asset. Muthoot Finance happily considers gold as collateral for loans – a welcome option for those Indian residents who lack access to bank accounts and therefore find it hard to arrange conventional credit.
The Muthoot Finance partnership will "bring the convenience of gold-backed loans to Google Pay, unlocking a valuable credit option for millions, particularly in rural India," trumpeted Google.
It declared: "This collaboration opens up an avenue to mobilize their latent gold assets, at affordable interest rates and with greater flexibility to chart a course for their futures through education, business or anything else." ®