India's Digital Leap: UNGA President Applauds Effort in Poverty Alleviation

President of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly, Dennis Francis, highlighted India's success in poverty alleviation through digitalisation during a global address in Rome. He emphasised that India has lifted millions out of poverty by leveraging smartphones.

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Francis was speaking at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations in Rome on "Accelerating progress towards Zero Hunger for the current and future generations." He noted, "Take for example the case of India…. India has been able to lift 800 million people out of poverty over the last five or six years simply by the use of smartphones."

India's Digital Transformation

Francis pointed out that rural farmers in India, who previously had no banking access, now conduct transactions via smartphones. This includes paying bills and receiving payments for orders. He added that nearly everyone in India has a cell phone, thanks to high internet penetration.

In 2009, only 17 per cent of Indian adults had bank accounts, and just 15 per cent used digital payments. Additionally, only one in 25 had a unique ID document, and about 37 per cent owned mobile phones. These figures have surged dramatically since then.

Financial Inclusion Initiatives

The Indian government has launched several financial inclusion measures. These include Aadhaar, a biometric database providing unique identities to citizens; Jan Dhan accounts for savings; direct social benefit transfers into these accounts; and BHIM, a digital payment infrastructure based on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

As of 2022, over 600 crore digital payment transactions were completed monthly. Teledensity has reached up to 93 per cent, more than a billion people have digital IDs, and over 80 per cent have bank accounts.

Global Digital Equity

Francis noted that such digital advancements are not common in many parts of the Global South. He stressed the need for initiatives to address this inequality as an initial step in negotiating a Global Framework for Digitalisation.

Responding to another question, Francis highlighted the importance of revisiting international financial systems. He stated, "because let's face it, those systems were created 80 years ago when the world was radically different. The dynamics of development were quite different."

Future Digital Compact

The UN has proposed a Global Digital Compact to be agreed upon at the high-level Summit of the Future in September 2024. This follows the political declaration adopted during the United Nations' 75th anniversary in September 2020 and the Secretary-General's report ‘Our Common Agenda’ released in September 2021.

The Common Agenda aims to address global challenges through collective action and proposes measures like the Global Digital Compact to ensure equitable digital progress worldwide.

Francis concluded by reiterating India's example as a model for other countries aiming to achieve similar progress through digitalisation.