Partners In Disruption And Innovation

In the first edition of IGF, stakeholders focused on highlighting the benefits of collaboration in technological innovation between India and the UAE. Keeping the significant synergies in mind, in 2022, IGF moved that conversation forward to identify the levers that will make this partnership a success.

In this spotlight session, H.E. Omar Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for AI, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications, UAE, and Hon. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, India's Minister for Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship, India, engaged in a lively conversation around the opportunities for collaboration and co-creation between the two countries and how the India Stack has a lot to offer the Global South.

Taking the audience back to the genesis of the India Stack and the problem that it was trying to solve, Minister Chandrasekhar said:

India as this large democracy had for decades been stuck with this narrative that government payments and subsidies did not really reach the beneficiaries without corruption, without delay, without leakage.

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi came in 2014, he said we will deploy technology to create identities and do identity authentication and then create a layer on top of that which would be payment. So, it solved a government problem, it solved a problem of trust between government and citizen but has spawned a tremendously innovative and tremendously fast-growing ecosystem around what has now become the India Stack.

“The India Stack today represents an opportunity for the Global South; countries that have in a sense been left behind or have not been able to afford the digitisation that other advanced nations have been able to invest in, it gives them an opportunity to rapidly climb up the ladder of digitalisation.”

Minister Al Olama lauded the “incredible” innovative edge of the India Stack and spoke of the UAE's vision of working with India in this sector, alongside other areas of partnership.

He said:

What India Stack provides is a no-excuse mandate for countries that say it can't be done, whether small or big. A country the size of India was able to implement that is something that cutting-edge within less than a decade. I cannot state how incredible that is. And, it was not an imported solution, it was built from scratch.

“The only way to combat bureaucracy is through digitalisation. For the UAE, we want to take the learnings and see how we can carve out for a country of our size and position.”

Catch all the India Global Forum UAE – Partners for Global Impact action here.