The first Digital Economy Working Group (DEWG) meeting under India’s G20 Presidency began in Lucknow on Monday, with India stressing on building a strong Unified Payments Interface (UPI) ecosystem among the G20 member countries. The first day of the three-day meeting, hosted by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, saw a workshop on ‘Digital Public Infrastructure: Sharing Experiences in the Implementation of Digital Identity in Different Countries’.
Other discussion themes included ‘Sharing Cyber Security Solutions for MSMEs’, ‘Focusing on Digital Public Infrastructure to Promote Sustainable Development Goals’, and ‘Geospatial Applications for Infrastructure and Product Development in the Digital Economy’. A workshop was also held on ‘Utilization of Technologies’. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath highlighted the state’s digital initiatives during an exhibition before the G20 members. He said that digital technology is the need of the day and the speed with which work has been done in this field has set a unique example in front of the world.
He also highlighted the benefits of digitization, such as pension to pensioners and scholarship to students, and emphasized the need for fast implementation of this model from agriculture to logistics and e-commerce. 141 delegates from member countries, guests from 33 countries are also participating in the meeting. The Digital Economy Working Group (DEWG) was formed in 2017 to promote a secure, interconnected and inclusive digital economy.