Boom in digital governance hailed by BRICS Nations

Digital technologies have witnessed an exponential growth across the world, amid the raging ongoing pandemic. According to global industry experts, the need for a new digital revolution across the world received wider acceptance as it has helped create job opportunities for millions of people.

Himanushu Kapania, Chairman-Telecom, Electronic and Digital Economy Council, FICCI, while speaking at the BRICS Business Forum 2021, said that the chamber is focused on offering suggestions on digital governance, promote institutional cooperation and showcase case studies successful implementation of digital governance.

The first panel discussion, of the three days webinar,namely Leveraging digital technologies for better governance and higher growth, saw participation of industry experts from Russia, Brazil, India, China and South Africa, the five nations of BRICS. Experts stated that digital governance has enabled transparency, improved public participation, promoted efficiencies and has ensured information security.

On digital revolutions, Kapani emphasised on the wide usage of Aadhar, world's largest biometric dentification system and Unified Payment Interface (UPI) which has received much participation from the Indian population.

"Digital has helped India to build economic inclusivity across various sector of the society. India developed one of its kind, instant real time payment system known as UPI. UPI has so far facilitated cumulatively over 3.2 billion financial transactions, worth over $6 trillion and has been the lifeline of masses especially in time of the lockdown," Kapani said.

Daniel Stivelberg, Data Protection Officer and Government Relations Manager, BRASSCOM, said that telecommunication 6.8 percent of the Gross National Product of Brazil, including 1.7 million workers in the sector.

According to Stivelberg, Brazil has seen spectacular growth in cloud computing which has further contributed to its economy. Nations across the world, have seen rise in popularity of digital products such as Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and other virtual connectivity solutions since 2020.

Tushar Parikh, Country Head Brazil and BFSI Head Latin America,Tata Consultancy Services, said digital economic boom is a different revolution in the modern age.

"This (digital) transformation will benefit eventually as it will align businesses where the real human being need is. Digital has enabled the productivity which requires to drive the experience, technology is empowering people, countries, companies and societies," Parik said during the webinar.

Under Mission Digital Critical Programme, for passport applications in the country, Parik said, "There has been a two folds increase in (passport) application volume increase, from 5.41 million in 2008, to 11.6 million in 2020, without overall passport issuance being reduced from 45 to 60 days."