India Sets Target of A Billion Digital Transactions Per Day

MUMBAI: India is targeting 1 billion digital transactions per day, said Amitabh Kant, chief executive of government think-tank Niti Aayog.

“From three billion transactions in a month we are targeting a billion transactions per day and we are pushing for it,” Kant said on Friday speaking at CII’s fintech and digitisation seminar via videoconferencing.

Data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed that while total volume of digital payments touched 3 billion in March, it declined to 2.36 billion in April. The covid-19 lockdown that began on 25 March had led to a fall in digital payment volumes as e-commerce portals stopped taking orders and customer spend at large retail outlets dropped.

Kant said the government has been building requisite infrastructure to ensure financial inclusion and for a big push towards digitisation. India had hitherto remained a cash-driven economy but is now transitioning into a formal economy, defined by access to bank accounts and formal means of financial services, he said.

“More than 80% of Indian adults now hold bank accounts, up from about 36% in 2011,” said Kant.

He said that most western countries are unable to distribute financial benefits the way India is currently doing through the direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme.

“If you look at the western world, leaders are still figuring out how to distribute benefits to their citizens. A government that collects money from businesses and its citizens each year has never built a system to distribute money when it is needed the most. India’s approach, in comparison, has been of equitable and inclusive technology growth,” he said.

According to Kant, fintech and digitisation have been the two themes that have become extremely prominent in this covid-19 world. India, he said, has been diligently and consistently building on its digital capacities for the past several years and it has prepared itself for disruptions that have happened and covid-19 has induced many changes in payments and financial services.

He said evolution of India’s fintech market has broadly followed the global trend of fintech adoption, starting with payments, moving to personal finance and gradually leading to activities such as insurance, wealth management and traditional deposit savings accounts.

“As the Indian fintech market matures, there will be huge opportunities for incumbents and new entrants alike to move up the adoption curve and expand the Indian fintech pie,” said Kant.

Meanwhile, speaking at Mint’s Pivot or Perish banking webinar on 11 June, bankers were unanimous that digitisation is going to bring about a dramatic shift in the way transactions will happen and employees will function.

Source: Live Mint

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