Chandrashekhar joins World Bank's South-South Knowledge Sharing Series

Utkarsh Classes Last Updated 14-03-2024

Chandrashekhar joins World Bank's South-South Knowledge Sharing Series

Summit and Conference 5 min read

Union Minister of State for Skill Development, Entrepreneurship, Electronics and Information Technology, Rajiv Chandrashekhar virtually participated in the ‘South-South Knowledge Sharing Series’ conference organized by the World Bank on 25 September 2023.

The program focuses on India's potential as an inspirational model, in the light of India's Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and India's efforts to include the African Union in the G20.

Theme of the conference:

The conference was based on the theme “Digital Public Infrastructure: The India Story”.

Why is the conference needed?

During the virtual conference, African Union representatives highlighted the important opportunities that DPI can provide to countries whose citizens are not yet connected to the Internet.
Its overarching goal is to promote Internet enablement, transformation, resilience, and security.
So far, India has signed MoUs with around eight countries to share its stack. This is a testament to India's success in leveraging technology to improve lives.
The G20 has endorsed the DPI based approach. It is believed that countries that have lagged behind in digitization can take advantage of the global DPI repository.

Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI):

DPI refers to blocks or platforms such as digital identity, payment infrastructure and data exchange solutions.
It helps countries improve the lives of their people by providing essential services, empowering citizens and enabling digital inclusion.
DPIs mediate the flow of people, money and information:
- The flow of people through a digital ID system.
- Flow of funds through real-time instant payment system and
- Flow of personal information through a consent-based data sharing system to avail the benefits of DPI and empower citizens with real ability to control data.

What is South-South Cooperation?

South-South cooperation refers to technological cooperation between developing countries located in the Southern Hemisphere at the global level.
'Global South' includes countries in Asia, Africa and South America.

Origin:

It originates from the adoption in Argentina in September 1978 by 138 United Nations Member States of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action to promote and implement technical cooperation among developing countries.
This collaboration is a platform used by states, international organisations, academia, civil society and the private sector to collaborate and share knowledge, skills and successful initiatives in specific areas such as agricultural development, human rights, urbanisation, health, climate change etc.
South-South cooperation and South-South knowledge exchange connects policy makers, cross-sector experts and development practitioners across countries to learn from each other's experiences and identify practical development solutions and policies.

World Bank:

Established: 1944
The World Bank was established together with the IMF as the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD).
After some time IBRD became the World Bank.
The World Bank Group is a unique global partnership of five institutions working to create sustainable solutions that reduce poverty and build shared prosperity in developing countries.
Currently 189 countries are members of the World Bank. India is also its member.
President: Ajaypal Singh Banga (an Indian-American business executive. He is currently the President of the World Bank)