Why the G20 Digital Innovation Alliance is important for Startups

As part of India's G20 presidency, Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw has launched the "Stay Safe Online" campaign and the “G20 Digital Innovation Alliance” (G20-DIA), here today.

MeitY, the Nodal Ministry for the G20 Digital Economy Working Group (DEWG), has represented India in numerous working groups and Ministerial sessions during previous presidencies. During India's G20 presidency, MeitY will focus on three priority areas, namely Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), Cyber Security, and Digital Skill Development, together with the Stay Safe Online campaign and DIA programme under the DEWG. MeitY aims to carry forward the vision of the digital transformation of the global digital economy for public service delivery through innovation and a future-ready digitally skilled workforce in a secure cyber environment.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw said, "India believes in the philosophy of inclusion. India's population scale and open source ‘public digital platforms' such as UPI and Aadhaar have delivered economic and social inclusion and spurred innovation. The two campaigns launched today have the humanitarian way of thinking.”

Addressing the august gathering, Shri Amitabh Kant said “Solutions springing from India will not be solutions for 1.4 billion people of the world but for the next 5 billion people of the world who will move from poverty to middle class.”

About Stay Safe Online Campaign

The objective of the ‘Stay Safe Online Campaign’ is to raise awareness among citizens to stay safe in the online world due to the widespread use of social media platforms and the rapid adoption of digital payments. The exponential increase in the number of internet users in India and the rapidly evolving technology landscape have brought unique challenges. This campaign will make citizens of all age groups, especially children, students, women, senior citizens, specially-abled, teachers, faculty, officials of Central/State Governments, etc. aware of the cyber risk and ways to deal with it. The campaign will be carried out in English, Hindi and local languages to reach a wider audience.

The campaign involves the dissemination of multilingual awareness content in the form of infographics, cartoon stories, puzzles, short videos, etc. and amplifying the same through extensive use of the MyGov website ( https://www.mygov.in/staysafeonline ) and prominent social media platforms. Besides this, various publicity, promotion and outreach activities would be carried out throughout the year through print, electronics & social media to reinforce the stay safe online message. In addition, collaboration and involvement of key stakeholders viz. Union Ministries / Departments, industry associations/partners, NGOs, civil society organizations, etc. would be sought for wider outreach of the campaign.

About G20 Digital Innovation Alliance (G20-DIA)

The objective of the G20 Digital Innovation Alliance (G20-DIA) is to identify, recognize, and enable the adoption of innovative and impactful digital technologies developed by startups, from G20 nations as well as the invited non-member nations, which can address the needs of humanity in the critically important sectors of Agri-tech, Health-tech, Ed-tech, Fin-tech, Secured Digital Infrastructure, and Circular Economy.

Startup products in the aforementioned six themes enabled through Digital Public Goods Infrastructure can create a global population-scale impact and reduce the digital divide and enable sustainable, and inclusive techno-socio-economic development.

The G20 Digital Innovation Alliance (G20–DIA) summit which will be held in Bangalore on the sidelines of the Digital Economy Working Group (DEWG) meeting will be a multi-day program where top nominated startups from each of the theme areas from all of the G20 countries and the non-member invited countries will showcase their solutions to the global community of investors, mentors, corporates, and other government stakeholders.

The engagement of innovators, entrepreneurs, startups, corporations, investors, mentors, and other ecosystem stakeholders will lead to the speedy acceptance of the platform that India plans to offer through the G20 Digital Innovation Alliance (G20-DIA). The G20-DIA Summit will bring together the key players in the innovation ecosystem from both G20 member countries and the invited non-member countries in order to recognise and support startups creating cutting-edge digital solutions in the six themes that bridge the digital divide between different segments of humanity and advance the world economy.