NITI Aayog, the public policy think tank of the government of India, and multinational financial services corporation Mastercard have identified challenges in accelerating digital financial inclusion in India and provided recommendations for making digital services accessible to its citizens in their recent joint report titled ‘Connected Commerce: Creating a Roadmap for a Digitally Inclusive Bharat’.
They have also suggested strengthening the payment infrastructure of India to promote a level playing field for NBFCs and banks and enabling agricultural NBFCs to access low-cost capital and deploy a ‘phygital’ (physical + digital) model for achieving better long-term digital outcomes.
Experts from the government, banking sector, the financial regulator, fintech enterprises, and various ecosystem innovators participated in five roundtable discussions held in October and November 2020, led by NITI Aayog and supported by Mastercard.
The key issues that were addressed during the knowledge series include acceleration of digital financial inclusion for underserved sections of Indian society; enabling SMEs to ‘get paid, get capital and get digital’ and access customers, and ensure their continued resilience; policy and technological interventions to foster trust and increase cyber resilience; and unlocking the promise of digitisation in India’s agriculture sector.
“With this report, we hope to highlight key elements of a roadmap India can follow to achieve the next level of digital transformation, driven by providing real value to the next half-billion of society that will go online and onto digital transactions in the next three years,” said Ari Sarker, co-president, Asia Pacific, Mastercard.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KD)