Encouraging More Inclusive Digital Economies
India has achieved pioneering innovations in building and scaling digital public infrastructure (DPI). The dedicated focus on DPI by the country’s leadership has helped reshape India’s economy by transforming services across public sectors, including healthcare, finance, education, and e-commerce. It has also moved the conversation on DPI forward through India’s G20 Presidency, bringing countries and partners together to prioritize this critical agenda.
According to a recent estimate, India’s digital financial infrastructure has enabled 80 percent of Indians to be covered by bank accounts in less than a decade, an accomplishment that may have taken close to 47 years by conventional methods. Furthermore, the new e-governance ecosystem has also helped the Government of India successfully plug about USD 27 million in potential leakages by facilitating the direct benefit transfer of money under various government schemes to the intended beneficiaries.
By facilitating digital payments, robust identification systems, and secure data exchanges through India Stack and CoWIN, India has also set an inspiring benchmark for how a skilled and competitive economy can empower its citizenry. India's experiences and achievements in this arena provide valuable insights that can serve as a blueprint for other nations.
Leveraging Science to Solve Global Challenges
India also demonstrates leadership in healthcare. Rapid advances made in the last few decades have led to new developments and innovation in applied research, science, and technology.
The steady growth in India’s biotechnology industry is a significant example. Fueled by growing demand domestically and globally, the sector is riding a wave of advancements in research, diagnostics, and therapeutics. India is not only the third-largest destination for biotechnology in Asia, but also one of the top 12 destinations for biotechnology worldwide.
The biotech industry’s growth, with sustained focus on research, science, and new innovations, has also bolstered India’s position as a leading vaccines manufacturer. Mission COVID Suraksha, the central government’s initiative to develop Indian vaccines for COVID-19, enabled the production of four advanced vaccines in the span of just two years. These include India’s indigenously developed DNAvaccine, ZyCoV-D, the country’s first protein subunit vaccine, CORBEVAXTM, another indigenously developed mRNA vaccine, GEMCOVAC™-19, and a novel intranasal vaccine for COVID-19, iNCOVACC.
This ability to embrace new tech to rollout advanced vaccines in a relatively short span of time proves that India can play a leading role in pioneering robust solutions to long-standing disease challenges that can be of value to the rest of the world.
Additionally, there are also advancements in service delivery. The country’s free national telemedicine service, eSanjeevani, which facilitates remote access to doctors for rural and urban populations, hit a significant milestone late last year by achieving 80 million teleconsultations. Hidden behind these numbers is an important trend: India is proving that innovating for populations at scale is feasible.
Investing in Climate Adaptive Practices
The strides India is making thanks to its investments in science and technology are not limited to the healthcare space. The launch of the Climate Adaptation Atlas for South Asia by the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) is a significant development. In recognizing the region’s shared vulnerability for climate change, it identifies the need for collaborative efforts within and between nations to make agriculture and livelihoods more adaptive and resilient. Launched in collaboration with the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) and the national agricultural research systems of Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, the project cements India’s commitment to investing in collaborative processes to help moderate potential damages and help make agriculture and livelihoods more resilient to climate change.
Fueled by government ownership, private sector engagement, and digitization drives, including the establishment of a pan-India digital ecosystem for agriculture, AgriStack, India is witnessing an agricultural transformation. Additionally, India’s efforts towards innovation-driven, sustainable, climate-adaptable agricultural practices, which aim to increase productivity and address food security, are commendable.
Inspired by the positive outcomes of the Borlaug Institute of South Asia (BISA)'s research in Samastipur on climate-resilient agricultural technologies, scientists are ‘transferring’ best practices to local farmers in Bihar. This includes teaching them how to cultivate crops without conventional tillage, and growing three crops with yields of up to 150 quintals per hectare annually.
Innovation is also underway in crop research for climate adaptation at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in Pusa, New Delhi. Higher temperatures caused by shifts in weather patterns are estimated to lower yields by up to 70 percent in existing variants of pulses and chickpeas grown in India. To prevent this becoming a reality, the institute has been working to produce new varieties, including those for the highly nutritious pulse, chickpeas. Early indications suggest some variants are enabling a 10 percent increase in yield, while also being more climate-change adaptive, and drought resistant.
As India continues its journey of development, we at the Gates Foundation look forward to continuing to work closely with the government to help advance its commitment to improved healthcare, scientific innovations, digital public infrastructure, and financial inclusion for the benefit of all.
