India has been praised for lifting 800 million people out of poverty in the last 5-6 years through extensive use of smartphones and digital payments.
While emphasizing the role of digitization in rapid development, Dennis Francis, President of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly, noted how rural residents in India can now make payments and pay bills using their smartphones due to the country’s high internet penetration .
Francis however highlighted that such digital transformation is not common in many parts of the Global South, calling for initiatives to address this digital divide as an initial step in negotiating the global framework for digitalisation.