Mr Chandrasekhar said there has been a conscious effort to include technology in governance.
India's digital public infrastructure, which has been making waves across the world and has earned praise from the likes of Bill Gates, has now caught the attention of even the powerful G20 countries, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said today.
Speaking at NDTV's Decoding G20 Conclave, the Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology said that, after 2014, there has been a conscious effort to include technology in governance. He said the Centre will take these efforts further and connect all public services with digital infrastructure.
“One of the amazing things about India's presidency of the G20 has been how centre-stage the DPI conversation has become. The India case study and the use of technology under PM Narendra Modi to transform governance, democracy and the lives of Indian citizens… has really caught the attention of all of these countries, including the big, powerful G20 nations,” the minister said.
Stating that it is the vision of PM Modi, Mr Chandrasekhar said the ambition of the Government of India is to intensify the digitalisation of the governance process and expand the DPI framework to cover almost all public services. He said the government wants to widen and expand the innovation ecosystem that supports and takes DPI forward.
“Even if you are a bitter opponent of the government, you cannot but accept and acknowledge the fact that there are countries around the world that are lining up, in a sense, to say can we also take this open-source, very flexible, very innovative India Stack, India DPI and implement it in our countries as well,” said Mr Chandrasekhar.
The minister asserted that India is turning on its head the narrative about technology being very expensive, very exclusionary, that only the very rich countries can afford the luxury of digitalisation.
“If you see what the United Payments Interface (UPI) is, it is a solution to solve a pressing use case of the government. For many years, people looked at India and said Rs 100 leaves Delhi and Rs 15 reaches the beneficiary because the whole process, the government pipe, is so leaky and corroded that there is so much of corruption and leakage,” said Mr Chandrasekhar.
“To solve that, the Prime Minister came up with the Jan Dhan Yojana, direct benefit transfer and then you had UPI evolve. So, just understand that you had governance problems being solved and, at the same time, you have this vibrant innovation ecosystem, which has now become one of the world's biggest fintech innovation ecosystems,” he added.
Asked about the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, the minister said it is necessary to stop platforms from misusing Indians' personal data and to address the “asymmetry” between the citizen and the platform.
On the powers the bill gives to the government and the privacy issues it raises, Mr Chandrasekhar said, “The powers are in very narrowly defined circumstances of emergencies. If there is a national security incident, you don't certainly expect the government to go to suspected terrorists and say can you give me your consent for your personal data.”
He went on to cite examples of pandemics and natural disasters and said the exemptions are for legitimate purposes. The minister said every fundamental right has reasonable restrictions and that applies to privacy as well. 
Mr Chandrasekhar said the government believes artificial intelligence is a force for good and is heavily invested in it. He added, however, that misinformation could be taken to another level if it is coupled with the power of AI, and the government's tentative stand is that innovation in AI is fine as long as it does not cause harm.
On the laptop import restrictions, which have been deferred, the minister said there is no ban and the government's communication “wasn't the best”. He said the idea behind the curbs was to ensure trusted and safe devices.