G20 ‘should harness social & economic activity data’ to advance Agenda 2030: India’s digital ID architect

The man credited with building India’s vast digital ID scheme tells the G20 Development Working Group (DWG) that it should look at different ways of harnessing data on social and economic activities to advance the UN’s Agenda 2030 sustainable development goals.

Speaking remotely in a pre-recorded address to a Group of Twenty (G20) DWG side meeting in Mumbai, India on Tuesday, Infosys co-founder and ex-chair of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), Nandan Nilekani, highlighted that every aspect of our lives had become digital and that our “data about our social and economic activities” should be harnessed for development goals.

“Every aspect of our life has digital technology in it […] This is generating vast amounts of data about our social and economic activities, and we should look at different ways to harness this data for development goals” — Nandan Nilekani, G20 Development Working Group Meeting, December 2022

“Today we live in a society which is increasingly digitized” — Nandan Nilekani, G20 Development Working Group Meeting, December 2022

“Today we live in a society which is increasingly digitized, and every aspect of our life has digital technology in it,” said the man credited with building India’s vast Aadhaar digital ID scheme.

“We find that this is generating vast amounts of data about our social and economic activities, and we should look at different ways to harness this data for development goals,” he added.

Nilekani’s remarks were given during the “Data for Development” side event of the first meeting of the DWG under India’s G20 Presidency.

The side meeting aimed to outline the role of the G20 in advancing the United Nations’ Agenda 2030 and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

During his brief recorded speech to the G20 DWG on Tuesday, India’s former digital ID czar went on to say that “we have a chance to build a new kind of ‘data for development’ paradigm” where citizens’ data would be used to receive financial services, healthcare, and employment.

“We have a chance to build a new kind of a ‘data for development’ paradigm, where data which is a byproduct of this large, interoperable population-scale systems gives us a way to analyze the future of India through its data” — Nandan Nilekani, G20 Development Working Group Meeting, December 2022

“In the coming years, starting with financial services, and later on in other areas, individuals will be able to use their own data to get a loan, to get better financial services, to get better healthcare, to get better jobs” — Nandan Nilekani, G20 Development Working Group Meeting, December 2022

“I believe that we have a chance to build a new kind of a ‘data for development’ paradigm, where data which is a byproduct of this large, interoperable population-scale systems gives us a way to analyze the future of India through its data,” said Nikelani.

“And finally, the most important ‘data for development’ is our own data — is there a way that individuals and small businesses can use the data for their own development, and that’s where the unique Indian architecture of data empowerment, which through account aggregators, allows individuals and small businesses to use their own data and get access to various services is truly transformational.

“In the coming years, starting with financial services, and later on in other areas, individuals will be able to use their own data to get a loan, to get better financial services, to get better healthcare, to get better jobs,” he added.

In addition to spearheading India’s digital ID scheme during his tenure as chair of the UIDAI from 2009-2014 and being a co-founder of tech giant Infosys, Nilekani has held high-level positions at Reuters, the World Economic Forum (WEF), and the World Bank Group’s Identification for Development (ID4D) Initiative.

“This digital identity determines what products, services and information we can access – or, conversely, what is closed off to us” — World Economic Forum

“The most important ‘data for development’ is our own data — is there a way that individuals and small businesses can use the data for their own development” — Nandan Nilekani, G20 Development Working Group Meeting, December 2022

The first meeting of the Development Working Group under India’s G20 Presidency is currently being held in Mumbai from December 13-16, 2022.

The next big G20 Summit will take place in New Delhi from September 9-10, 2023.

This year’s G20 Summit was held in Bali, Indonesia from November 15-16.

The G20 is a forum comprising nineteen countries with some of the world’s largest economies, as well as the European Union (EU).

The countries are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States.