India plans own certification for digital public infra, goods

Talks under way with multilateral forums like UN, G20 to collaborate on rating mechanism

- Rhik Kundu & Subhash Narayan

India is working with multilateral forums, including the UN and the G20, to create collaborations that would certify, register, test and benchmark Indian digital public infrastructure (DPIs) and public goods (DPGS), two people with direct knowledge of the matter said.

The success of some of the government's popular DPI programmes like CoWin, UPI, Digilocker and Diksha (national digital infrastructure for teachers) has prompted New Delhi to seek its own rating and testing mechanism for DPIs and DPGs, the people mentioned above said.

At present, an agency called the Digital Public Goods Alliance is the only multilateral organization that provides guidance, and benchmarks, rates, and judges DPIs. The UN-endorsed initiative facilitates the deployment and discovery of open-source technologies. The government's plan to form a certification, testing and registration process for DPIs and DPGs will not only allow India to cater to local DPIs and DPGs but also for such platforms developed elsewhere, said the first person mentioned above, who didn't want to be named.