Unpacking Digital Public Infrastructure: Navigating Conceptual Ambiguities

Policy Brief 2023 Aarushi Gupta, Aman Nair

This Policy Brief was first published in https://t20ind.org

Digital public infrastructure (DPI) has garnered widespread attention from policymakers, industry officials, and civil society. DPIs, combined with digital public goods (DPGs),1 have forced policymakers to consider how digital technologies can be used to address complex societal challenges. Indeed, DPIs can be deployed by state and non-state actors for a variety of uses. While there is plenty of enthusiasm regarding DPIs, there is still a degree of conceptual nascency, evident in the attempts to objectively define DPIs and DPGs, and delineate their features.2,3, 4 This policy brief seeks to (a) critically summarise the assortment of definitions that exist around DPIs, (b) articulate practical implications that such conceptual ambivalence may give rise to, and (c) propose a corresponding set of recommendations to the G20.