India’s DBT Infra Largest In World; Time To Use It For Climate Action Payments: Nilekani

Tech pioneer Nandan Nilekani advocated for re-purposing India’s Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) infrastructure to deliver climate action payments and incentivise eco-friendly practices. Stressing the urgent need for transformative approaches to address climate challenges, he suggested that India’s established DBT system could serve as a powerful tool to drive behavioural shifts toward sustainable practices among citizens and businesses alike.

“In India, we have the world's largest DBT infrastructure. We have 1.3 billion people with a digital ID. We have 760 million people with the Aadhar-linked bank accounts. We have transferred cumulatively USD 300 million of direct benefit transfer. Can we now repurpose this plumbing – very agile, real-time plumbing – for climate purposes?” Nilekani said, speaking at the Beckn Node Zero event in Bengaluru.

India’s DBT infrastructure, which is the largest in the world, was initially designed to streamline subsidy payments and other benefits directly to beneficiaries, bypassing intermediaries. 

By integrating this system with climate initiatives, Nilekani proposed that the government could offer direct incentives to citizens and organisations adopting sustainable practices. This approach, he argued, would not only encourage climate-positive actions but also ensure efficient and transparent disbursement of funds.

“The beauty of it is, we have the world's largest plumbing to transfer money to anyone in real time. And we can use that for all kinds of climate purposes, including subsidies. For example, people are getting subsidised to implement rooftop solar. So, behavioural change in the climate space is linked to providing financial incentives.”

‘Finternet’ For Climate Goals

The Infosys Chairman and FIDE co-founder said that FIDE is also working on the concept of Finternet, a way to tokenise assets. For this, Nilekani revealed the not-for-profit organisation is looking to bring together its Beckn open digital protocol and the internet.

“Let's say that you have individual person getting buying rooftop solar. Now, there are two ways to financially subsidise that. One is to actually give him money as a subsidy. The second is to give him credit at a concessional price. A person may buy the rooftop solar. He or she will buy a battery, or they'll use the battery they have in their EV. From the rooftop, they will produce electricity for their own consumption,” explained Nilekani.

“If there's excess electricity, they'll sell back to the grid with net metering or they will sell to the neighbour with peer-to-peer transactions. They will buy from the grid during the daytime. And the price of power is low today, as you know, in places like California, it's negative price during the day because there's no more production than consumption. So, they can sell back to the grid at night when there is extra power, they can set the charging of that EV to that time of the day when power is cheap,” he added.

Beckn protocol-powered Unified Energy Interface (UEI), which is backed by Ministry of Power, is already brining Indian ecosystem players together for EV charging infrastructure. Companies and startups, including Verde Mobility, Sheru, Log9, Trillectric, Kazam, Pulse Energy and others, have already begun working together towards this common cause.

The Beckn Protocol powers networks such as the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), Namma Yatri, the Unified Health Interface (UHI), and the Open Network for Education & Skilling Transformations (ONEST)

Speaking to BW Businessworld, FIDE CEO Sujith Nair explained how Finternet and Beckn can support green energy adoption. Using the hypothetical example of a “prosumer” named Maya who not only consumes power but also generates solar energy, he explained that Beckn could help her find certification providers, while Finternet allows her green certificate to be tokenised. This certification could then be used to access subsidies, cheaper loans, or participate in peer-to-peer energy programmes. 

“In just two to three weeks since the EV charging part went live after months of work, multiple companies that typically compete have come together to form a not-for-profit alliance around an open network called UEI. We're now seeing around 7,000 EV charging transactions daily, which is significant, given that the public charging market likely handles no more than 20,000 transactions per day, excluding at-home charging. This translates to over five gigawatt hours of energy per month. It is great progress,” said Nair.

The Indian government has set an aim for electric vehicles to make up 30 per cent of the market by 2030, which would require expanding public charging points to around 2.9 million.