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Economic Affairs Secretary Ajay Seth has said that digital public infrastructure (DPI) has led to savings of over $27 billion in government schemes, and achieve greater financial inclusion in a short period. He noted that the use of direct benefit transfer (DBT) in the last one decade has ensured money reached to targeted beneficiaries and bogus accounts are weeded out. This has helped in huge savings of taxpayers' money.

Sharing India's success story on the financial inclusion front, Seth said India has achieved 80 per cent account opening penetration from 20 per cent within a span of 7-8 years with DPI, which would have taken 47 years in the normal course as per a study by the Bank of International Settlements. He said ‘we developed a solution approach for delivering best-in-class services to the last mile and even in the most remote parts of the country. 

He further said since the launch of the digital identity number, Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana PMJDY in 2014, over 500 million bank accounts have been opened’. Out of this, 56 per cent of bank account holders are women, and 67 per cent of accounts are in rural and semi-urban areas. The average balance in these accounts is over Rs 4,000. He also said ‘our digital payment systems' UPI crossed 10 billion only in the month of August alone. Today, more than 5.5 crore Jan Dhan accounts are receiving direct benefit transfers, and government schemes have already made savings of over $27 billion’.