Sven Rathjen on digital ID
How Germany can learn from India when it comes to digitization
08/30/2023, 10:17 am
Sven Rathjen lived and worked in Silicon Valley for many years, but can also report from Asia. “The speed at which start-ups are created in India cannot be compared with Europe,” says the HP manager in the ntv podcast “So techt Deutschland”.
While digitization is still being discussed in Germany, India has already made great strides. A key to success is the introduction of a uniform ID number for every citizen. “With this unique number, you can open a bank account, conclude mobile phone contracts and even communicate with the government,” explains HP manager Sven Rathjen in the ntv podcast “So techt Deutschland”. Everything is done via mobile and that has spawned a whole ecosystem of startups.
Even though India is decades behind in terms of infrastructure, “India made the decision to go digital back in 2009 and has been unstoppable ever since,” emphasizes Rathjen. The scaling is enormous, mainly due to the possibility of micropayments between citizens. “It gives me so much benefit, I want more,” he says of the attitudes of people in India.
But what about Germany? “Companies prefer to invest in the US than in Germany,” notes Rathjen. He also addresses Germany’s inability to introduce a uniform ID for every German citizen. “I don’t even think that privacy is the problem, it’s just the inability to get everyone together and decide that,” he says. Germany can learn from India’s progress, especially in terms of speed of implementation and involving the entire population in the digital transformation.
In “So techt Deutschland” the ntv moderators Frauke Holzmeier and Andreas Laukat ask founders, investors, politicians and entrepreneurs how things are with Germany as a technology location. All episodes can be found in the ntv app, at RTL+ music, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and in the RSS feed. Also at Amazon Music and Google Podcasts you will find it.