India’s Digital Public Infrastructure to unlock digital economy potential in Sri Lanka
The Morning: Sri Lanka’s ongoing digital transformation supported by the Indian government’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), has the potential to enable digital private-public partnerships (PPPs), facilitating small and medium enterprise (SME) growth, and unlocking the full potential of Sri Lanka’s digital economy, Aadhar CTO and Founder Srikanth Nadhamuni said at an event held in Colombo recently.
“At the heart of DPI lies the principle that it should not foster monopolies in essential services like identity or payments.”
“One of the things DPI does instead of creating large monopolies that deal with identity or payments is that it enables private sector innovation on public sector rails,” Nadhamuni said, addressing an audience of public sector and private sector officials and leaders.
“This approach prevents the dominance of a single provider and ensures that businesses can build on top of public infrastructure, driving competition and innovation without jeopardising privacy and security.”
The CTO said this opportunity presents a crucial advantage for Sri Lankan SMEs and individuals alike, where access to digital services will ensure equitable participation in the digital economy.
Nadhamuni expressed that India’s UPI (Unified Payments Interface) is a prime example of how DPI’s framework can drive innovation and competition.
“In the example of UPI in India, several companies have built very innovative solutions on the UPI rules and the architecture that the government has come up with.”
“This principle of allowing the private sector to innovate on public-sector rails is central to DPI’s potential to boost PPPs in Sri Lanka. The government, by providing open and secure infrastructure, allows private players to innovate, creating a fertile ground for the digital economy to flourish.”
However, Nadhamuni emphasised that DPI is not just about technology, and that governance and policy frameworks play a vital role in ensuring its success.
“DPI is not just technology… unless you get the policy right unless you get the governance framework right, and unless safeguards are in place, you can collect a lot of data, but if it’s not secure, it’s not good.”
He further elaborated on DPI’s impact going beyond large corporations, extending to SMEs, which typically form the backbone of economies.
He drew on how DPI solutions could be scaled from rural villages to urban centres.
“If it works for a village, it can work for an entire country.”
This scalability will be key for Sri Lanka’s growing SME sector, enabling businesses of all sizes to leverage digital tools and platforms to improve efficiency and reach new markets, he said.
OSL take:
Sri Lanka’s ongoing drive to digitize the country and transform it into an e-economy have all made the local ICT and digital infrastructure development sectors a hotspot for business/investment opportunities. The growth and profits recorded by local businesses engaged in the ICT and digital infrastructure development sectors further indicate the increasing business potential in these sectors. The skilled labour available in Sri Lanka and the business conducive environment in the midst of the country’s target of achieving hub status in the South Asian region have added to the country’s attraction as an emerging business/investment destination for foreign businesses/investors. With the country’s state and private sectors focused on digitization of operations and with Sri Lanka in need of being on par with the fast-evolving global trends in the digital industry, foreign businesses/investors are guaranteed lucrative ventures that would also witness a continuous evolution, thereby guaranteeing a long-term revenue generator. The interest shown by India in Sri Lanka’s digital industry is further indicative of the increasing business potential in the industry. Foreign businesses could also look at forming partnerships or joint ventures with local businesses in the ICT and digital infrastructure with the aim of further expansion.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/20250218/Z_2 |