SAMARKAND — Speaking at the 12th Inter-Parliamentary Union Conference in Uzbekistan, Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha presented India’s digital public infrastructure as a global benchmark for socioeconomic inclusion, arguing that rapid technological expansion must be anchored by strong civil protections. Addressing the summit on the theme of digital rights in modern governance, Chadha pointed to India’s massive internet penetration and low data tariffs as catalysts that have democratized digital access across diverse income groups over the past decade.
Highlighting the recent strategic partnership established between New Delhi and Tashkent, Chadha drew attention to the cross-border interoperability pact between India’s Unified Payments Interface and Uzbekistan’s national UZCARD network. He explained that the bilateral linkage will enable travellers and students to complete retail transactions in Uzbekistan directly from domestic Indian bank accounts via simple QR-code scans, eliminating foreign exchange markups, cash dependencies, and physical card requirements.
The parliamentarian outlined his perspective through four fundamental pillars of digital rights: access, agency, safety, and opportunity. He noted that India’s digital connectivity expanded from roughly 250 million users in 2014 to over one billion today, supported by a 97 percent drop in mobile data prices. Describing UPI as an open public highway rather than a proprietary banking monopoly, Chadha cited its exponential trajectory from fewer than 100,000 inaugural transactions in 2016 to over 240 billion transactions valued at 314 trillion rupees during the 2025-26 fiscal period, underscoring how micro-payments empower street vendors and migrant households daily.
Turning to user protection and institutional accountability, Chadha maintained that technological convenience and privacy protections are not mutually exclusive. He referenced India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, constitutional privacy guarantees, and emerging mandates for clear labelling of artificial intelligence content as essential safeguards against digital exploitation. Urging international delegates to evaluate technological advancement through the lens of equity, he concluded that digital progress should be measured by whether a user holding the simplest mobile device in the most marginalized locality enjoys identical access, security, and economic mobility.
