India's Digital Public Infrastructure in Agriculture

Another place that India leads, uh, but there's a lot more that all of

you can be involved in driving forward, is this digital,

uh, public infrastructure. You know, no country is more able

to take government benefits and get them out efficiently and

effectively to their citizens, uh, than

India. You know, you would have expected rich countries

or others to do that,

but in fact, uh, uh, they did not.

And so that basic structure that starts with identity and bank

accounts and payments is, is just foundational.

And as part of this visit, I'm now seeing how that

foundation is being built out. Built out in, uh,

agriculture, uh, with profiles of farmers to understand,

uh, what they need and give them advice.

Uh, built out with health records, uh, so that we can help people not

only with infectious diseases, but, uh, the challenge that's coming

in the future with the growth of the non-communicable

diseases being a huge thing. And, uh,

that digital public infrastructure will help us, uh, with these, uh,

climate, uh, problems.

I was in Odisha, uh, yesterday and, and what they showed

is that they've registered the farmers and, uh, registered what type

of crops they grow and what land they own.

They literally have a control center.

You know, when you walk in, you think, "Wow, this is agriculture?" But, you know,

you've got a command center and maps and people doing queries and

sending out messages. And so that all starts, you know, with an

Aadhaar identity, listing those farmers, uh, getting the

information, making sure it's up to date