Decoding Digital Public Goods & Digital Public Infrastructure with Dr. Pramod Varma

Jun 16, 2023

Dr. Pramod Varma, expert in digital public infrastructure and digital public goods, discusses the importance of unlocking value from DPIs and DPGs in various social sectors in India. He highlights the success of Aadhar and UPI as examples of DPIs and explores advancements in digital infrastructure. The podcast also explores the concept of a 'bus list' and the factors necessary for the digital public goods movement to gain momentum.

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Introduction

00:00 • 2min

Exploring Digital Public Goods and Infrastructure

01:43 • 12min

Building Infrastructure and Digital Public Goods

13:53 • 23min

Advancements in Digital Infrastructure and Solving Complex Societal Problems

36:34 • 4min

The Concept of a Bus List and the Role of DPI

40:36 • 9min

Factors for Momentum in the Digital Public Goods Movement

49:24 • 7min

Creating Thinkers, Innovation Entrepreneurs, and Infrastructure Entrepreneurs for Digital Public Goods

56:50 • 7min

Digitalisation has already been a significant game changer for India's economy and society. Digital public infrastructure and digital public goods, or DPIs and DPGs,have emerged in the development ecosystem as a means to achieve population-scale social impact.

We have already seen the potential of DPIs with the success of Aadhar and UPI, solving for identity and payment transfer problems. While we will continue to hear about how additional value gets unlocked, there are 5+ DPIs brewing across the social development sector of education, health, skilling and livelihoods. So what does it take to unlock value from DPIs and DPGs as they emerge in other important and complex social sectors in India?

To discuss this in detail with us today, we have with us Dr. Pramod Varma who is the CTO of EkStep, a not-for-profit creating learner-centric, technology enabled platform aiming to provide learning opportunities to 200 million children in India. He was also the Chief Architect of Aadhaar, and various India stack layers such as eSign, Digital Locker, and Unified Payment Interface (UPI). He is a co-founder of FIDE and the genesis author of the open source Beckn protocol. Pramod is an adjunct faculty, he is the Co-Chair at the global Center for Digital Public Infrastructure at the IIIT-B helping other countries design and architect their own DPIs. He regularly speaks at technology conferences and is part of advisory groups of various national and international projects.

For more, follow Sattva Knowledge Institute on our Website, ⁠Linkedin, ⁠Twitter,⁠ and Instagram: @sattvaknowledgeinstitute

Host: Rathish Balakrishnan ⁠Linkedin⁠ | ⁠Twitter⁠

Guest: Pramod Varma ⁠Linkedin⁠ | ⁠Twitter⁠

Podcast Producer: Meenakshi Iyer

Audio Engineer & Editor: Abhilash Raikar

Designer: Usha Sondhi Kundu

0:00 - Decoding Impact Introduction
0:37 - Episode reflection from host
1:35 - Episode highlight reel
2:32 - Introduction to topic and guest
3:49 - What are DPIs and DPGs
11:47 - Can entrepreneurs succeed using DPIs?
13:52 - Mental models & mindset to build DPIs
21:42 - How do you know what infrastructure to build?
30:42 - How infrastructure builders need to approach solving problems
40:35 - The "Bus List" for DPI today
49:23 - How to catalyse entrepreneurship and DPIs
56:49 - How do we enable industry adoption?
1:02:22 - Summary and Thanks