Context:
The vision of a Viksit Bharat 2047 is ambitious, requiring India to adapt quickly to rapidly changing global dynamics. While challenges like geopolitical instability, climate change, and technology disruptions exist, adopting platform-based economic models can provide a pathway to achieve rapid innovation, economic flexibility, and resilience in a volatile environment.
Platform-Based Approach: A Solution to Economic Uncertainty
- Platform Model
- A platform is an elastic system through which a large number of agents, such as buyers, sellers, and service providers, interact in ways that encourage innovation and rapid adaptation.
- Freedom and Flexibility
- Sellers are not tied to one customer, and buyers can find a variety of sellers, so trade is made efficient and inexpensive.
- Innovation and Speed
- Digital technologies will allow real-time information flow so that innovation takes place faster than ever and better responds to changing market demands.
Examples of Successful Platforms
- Digital Payments
- India’s digital payments model is an exemplar of successful platform models where the system rapidly expanded.
- Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC)
- The platform that the government is proposing as a tool to create new platforms for startups falls in the pattern of strategies meant to generate new business opportunities and competition.
Platform-Oriented Economic Policy
India requires an overall platform-oriented economic policy aimed at enabling platforms across sectors. These should be constituted by the following elements:
- Enable Participation in Digital Infrastructure
- Integrate all the public and private platforms with Digital India and BharatNet, thus widening the reach and the scope.
- Simplify Regulations
- Unwind unnecessary restrictions, especially FDI, for fostering competition and integration with the global economy.
- The existing limitations on FDI restrict the scope of the market and inhibit innovation and lead Indian firms away from venturing globally.
- Support to Startups
- Platforms should provide marketing support and easy access to small, informal sector-based firms.
- The KYC requirements could be relaxed for small, localized businesses to enable them to make use of digital platforms effectively.
- Mechanisms for Customer Protection
- Set up ombudsmen and transparent customer redressal systems to instill confidence in platforms and ensure customer satisfaction, thus acting as a better growth driver than penalties or controls.
- Eliminate International Transaction Obstacles
- Concentrate on removing barriers to international trade, allowing Indian platforms to be part of international value chains and providing access to new market opportunities.
