India makes more real time digital transactions than US, China & Europe combined: DPIIT Secy
“Real development happens when every citizen is able to make choices about what they want to do with their life without worrying about the basic necessities of life,” said Mr Anurag Jain, Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, during an interactive session on ‘Inclusion on the Back of Technology: Best Practices’ at the CII Partnership Summit 2023 on 14 March in New Delhi.
The Secretary said that in terms of real-time online digital transactions, what India does is more than US, China and Europe put together. He said that when the Hon’ble Prime Minister talks about the vision for 2047, he is talking about the vision of a developed country, not just from the perspective of per capita income, but a country where all basic needs are met. “India has a paperless, presence-less, and cashless solution for everything. The public digital infrastructure of India is unique. It is based on open systems, open architecture and open network, which allows everyone to plug in and removes entry barriers,” he added.
Mr J Venkatramu, MD & CEO, India Post Payments Bank, said that technology has become an integral part of financial inclusion. “A lot of training is required for end-users towards embracing technology. Financial literacy camps and enabling users to use smartphones has been an inflection point for banking. Going forward, capacity building efforts for end-users will provide greater impetus for embracing technology,” he added.
Mr Royston Braganza, CEO, Grameen Capital, said that India is showing global leadership in reaching the underserved. He said that if financial inclusion and technology are brought together, it would result in a world where everything can be achieved everywhere, all at once. Mr Braganza stressed on the need to enable lending for social enterprises and monetizing impact.
Mr Ravi Aurora, Executive Director, Global Policy Affairs & Community Relations (USA), Mastercard, underlined the importance of building cyber resilience. He said that data principles must be centred around benefiting the user. Having a set of security mechanisms in terms of tokenization and anonymization is important to create a security infrastructure to maintain trust, he added.
Sunil Kant Munjal, Past President, CII and Chairman, Hero Enterprise, said that financial inclusion is an important and critical tool for enabling individuals, families and communities to have a standard of living and have access to opportunities that allow them to make choices for themselves. “India is unique in the sense that we have a billion digital identities, a billion telephone connections and over a billion bank accounts. This is a very powerful combination, which has allowed the government to get public utilities and services to where it actually matters, including giving support and subsidies directly into individuals’ account,” he added.
14 March 2023
New Delhi