India in the process of developing global DPI standards: IT secretary S Krishnan

MeitY secretary S Krishnan

India is taking a leading role in shaping global digital public infrastructure (DPI) standards, IT ministry secretary S Krishnan said, while urging International Telecommunication Union to study India's approach.

Krishnan, who was speaking at the United Nations' Citizen Stack 2025 conference in Geneva on January 29, said, "A critical element which I think is very important for DPI is the way we address the question of standards. It is essential that technical standards are established for this and so that everyone is comfortable with the way they operate."

"We are in the process of trying to architect these standards which can become globally acceptable. I would request that the ITU (International Telecommunication Union) and others should also study what we are attempting to do in this so that it becomes a globally acceptable standard," Krishnan said at the conference. Krishnan said that this report will be ready in a few months.

According to a presentation Krishnan made at the conference, the standards can be used for sovereign ID systems and identity chains, cross-border authentication framework, verification protocols, digital credential systems.

Krishnan also underscored India's efforts to make DPI globally accessible, saying that the Global Digital Public Infrastructure Repository (GDPIR) houses 54 DPIs from 16 countries.

India has also signed 17 MoUs with other nations to facilitate DPI adoption, Krishnan said adding that a social impact fund has been announced with an initial $25 million commitment from India, aiming to support capacity building and pilot DPI deployments in the Global South.