Roundtable on
Digital Public Infrastructure and Public Service Delivery
Inclusion. Efficiency. Security

Venue: Marigold Hall, India Habitat Centre
Friday, May 8, 2026 | 10:00 AM to 01:00 PM (IST)

Agenda
9:30 – 10:00 AM : Registration & Refreshments

Inaugural Session

10:00 – 10:05 AM : Opening Remarks by Dr. Shekhar Aiyar, Director & CE, ICRIER

10:05 – 10:20 AM: Keynote Address by Shri Saurabh K. Tiwari, Additional Secretary, DBT Mission
10:20 – 10:35 AM : Distinguished Address by Dr. V. Anantha Nageswaran, Chief Economic Advisor, Government of India

Roundtable Session
10:45 – 10:55 AM : Special Address by Mr. Rajesh Bansal, Former CEO, Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH)
10:55 – 11:05 : AM: Special Address by Dr. Rajeev Shorey, Director, IIIT Surat

11:05 – 01:00 PM : Panel Discussion
India’s experience with Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) offers one prominent use case globally within the broader DPI framework. As DBT has expanded across schemes and geographies, questions of inclusion, administrative efficiency, data governance, and data security have become central to assessing its performance and long-term sustainability. The discussion aims to examine how these dimensions interact in practice and what institutional and design considerations are critical for strengthening DPI-led welfare systems. The key focus areas of the session are as follows:
• Inclusion and exclusion dynamics in beneficiary identification, authentication, and last-mile delivery
• Administrative efficiency, fund flow integration, and monitoring through systems such as PFMS
• Data protection, cybersecurity risks, and institutional safeguards within DBT pipelines
• Grievance redressal mechanisms and accountability frameworks
• Forward-looking lessons for strengthening DPI-based welfare architectures

Session chaired  by Ms. Payal Malik, Visiting Professor, ICRIER

Moderated by Dr. Sumita Kale, CEO and Senior Fellow, Indicus Foundation

01:00 – 01:05 PM : Vote of Thanks

01:05 PM onwards : Lunch

Expert Panellists 

• – Aishwarya Iyer, Senior Research Associate, Dvara Research
• – Anita Gurumurthy, Executive Director & Senior Fellow, IT for Change
• – Anurag Saxena, Vice President, Asia, Accion
• – Beni Chugh, Practice Head, Future of Finance Initiative, Dvara Research
• – Nikita Kwatra, Principal, Artha Global
• – Rajendran Narayanan, Associate Professor in the School of Arts and Sciences, Azim Premji University
• – Rakesh Maheshwari, Former Sr. Director and GC (Cyber Laws, Cyber Security and Data Governance), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology
• – Rama Vedashree, Former CEO, Data Security Council of India
• – Sandeep Kumar Shukla, Professor and Director, IIIT Hyderabad
• – Shweta Banerjee, Country Lead, India, BRAC International
• – Sridhar Dhulipala, Principal Advisor (Design), UIDAI
• – Srinivas Kodali, Independent Researcher
• – Sunaina Kumar, Director, Centre for New Economic Diplomacy and Senior Fellow, ORF
• – Sunil Kulkarni, CEO, Business Correspondents Federation of India (BCFI)
• – Vijay Sai Pratap, Co-founder & CEO, Gram Vaani