Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said that India is a prime destination for digital payments and lauded the role of startups in making India a global fintech destination.
"Fintech adoption rate India is 87 per cent whereas a global average is only 64 per cent," Sitharaman said in her remarks at Global Fintech Fest 2021.
The Global FinTech Fest has been organised by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), along with its sister organisations Fintech Convergence Council (FCC), Payments Council of India (PCI), and National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
Finance Minister lauded the efforts by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said the government is pushing forward the idea of digital payments which is showing results. "In 2019, we had around 2 lakh crore transactions through digital payments. In 2020, it shot up to 4 lakh crore transactions through digital payments," she said.
"In 2021, from January till the end of August 2021, in just eight months, we have a total of 355 crore individual transactions, which is six lakh crore worth transactions through digital payments," she added.
Sitharaman said every section of people is benefiting from the adoption of technology.
"The government is giving the required push and people are wanting to adapt to it. The push was increased more because of the necessity during the pandemic. QR codes became very popular in villages," she said.
"India is the prime destination for digital payments, we are very happy to further support and strengthen UPI," she added.
Finance Minister said that cashless, paperless and faceless transactions are being achieved with the participation of people.
"Entire world to seeing how India is adopting the fintech platforms. Indian banks have 1.5 lakh 'mitras'. Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) was enabled through technology and made us confident that relief may be sent to the people within few minutes. In case that money was not credited into the account, the bank Mitras were there to help out. This comfort was there because our the payment system was so mature. Therefore, today you see that fintech is emerging in India," she said.
"Today banks, payment banks, small financial systems are technology-driven. This has helped us during the pandemic. Today, all are using fintech technology and every section of Indian householders are benefitting from it. Fintech startups today are fine-tuning this whole business and updating with new technologies, innovating and the government is promoting them," she added.
( With inputs from ANI )
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