At 87 pc, India has the highest FinTech adoption rate in the world against the global average of 64 pc: Union Minister Piyush Goyal
Author: BI Bureau
New Delhi: Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs and Food & Public Distribution and Textiles Piyush Goyal has said that India is poised to become one of the largest digital markets in the world. Addressing the second Global Fintech Fest-2021 through video conferencing recently, he said, “At 87 per cent, India has the highest FinTech adoption rate in the world against the global average of 64 per cent.”
“As of May 2021, India’s United Payments Interface (UPI) has seen participation of 224 banks and recorded 2.6 billion transactions worth over $68 billion and the highest ever, more than 3.6 billion transactions, in August 2021,” said Goyal. “Over 2 trillion transactions were processed using the AePS (Aadhaar-enabled payment system) last year,” he added.
The Minister said India’s FinTech industry came to the rescue of people at the time of pandemic, by enabling them to carry out critical activities from the safety of their homes, particularly during the lockdown and the second wave of Covid-19. “As Prime Minister Narendra Modi says that ‘every crisis can be converted into an opportunity,’ now citizens do not have to go to the banks, the banks have come to their homes and on their mobile phones,” he said.
Goyal said that under the visionary leadership of the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi India underwent a digital transformation in Mission Mode since he announced the Jan Dhan Yojana in his first Independence Day speech on assuming office, on August 15, 2014. More than two crore accounts were opened under the scheme, which has been considered a world record, he said.
“JAM trinity, besides DBT, has brought in transparency, integrity and timely delivery of financial benefits and services to India’s vast population. JAM trinity has enabled India to leverage its technical capabilities for developing the Fintech sector,” he said.
The minister said that under the National Broadband Mission soon every village in India will have high speed internet and this power can be leveraged to make India a Fintech Innovation Hub.
“I believe India is poised to become one of the largest digital markets with rapid expansion of mobile and internet networks. As India aims to become Atma Nirbhar, we want our industry and entrepreneurs to use local talent to produce globally marketable solutions, he said.
“Our MSMEs have also rapidly adopted FinTech solutions whether for credit, payments, accounting and tax filing. The government has recently launched the Open Credit Enablement Network (OCEN) and Account Aggregator (AA) framework. These enable formal credit flow to the most vulnerable segments, especially particularly small businesses, bringing Ease for financial institutions to reach large segments, by lowering distribution costs and now institutions can give smaller loans, with short repayment cycles,” he said.
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The exports of agricultural commodities from March to June 2020 shot up by 23.24 percent on-year to Rs 25,552.7 crores.
As the economy comes to a standstill amid the coronavirus-led lockdown, India’s agriculture sector has taken the baton of economic growth in its hands. The exports of agricultural commodities from March to June 2020 shot up by 23.24 percent on-year to Rs 25,552.7 crores, according to the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. The government said that self-reliant agriculture is critical for the goal of an Atmanirbhar Bharat and for this, agricultural export is extremely important as besides earning foreign exchange for the country, the exports help farmers, producers, and exporters to take advantage of the wider international market and increase their income.
The surge in exports has also resulted in increased production in the farm sector by increasing coverage area and productivity. The share of India’s agricultural exports and imports in the world agriculture trade in 2017 was 2.27 percent and 1.90 percent, respectively. Even during the difficult time of pandemic lockdown, India took care not to disturb the world food supply chain and continued to export, the government said.
Ministry of Agriculture has prepared a comprehensive action plan for the promotion of Agri trade; the twofold approach focuses on boosting Agri Export with emphasis on value addition and action plan for Import Substitution. Recently, the Agriculture sector has witnessed a series of reforms, giving more choices to the farmers to sell their produce at competitive rates.
To mention a few, the Export strategy focuses on the export promotion of fast-evolving niche markets of Wellness food/ Health-conscious food/nutraceuticals, Development of “Brand India” in campaign mode to help penetration into new foreign markets and of new products which automatically translates into higher value realization, Gulf countries have been identified as focus destination to increase the market share which is a strong market for India though presently India caters to only 10-12% share of their total imports. A product-market matrix has been made containing a list of products of strength that could be expanded in new geographies and a list of known markets which can be introduced with newer products.
At the behest of the Department of Agricultural Cooperation & Farmers’ Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture, product-specific Export Promotion Forums have been created to lead Agri exports to new heights. Each Export Promotion Forum shall be having exporters of the related commodity as its members along with official members representing concerned Ministries/Departments of the Central and State Governments. Chairman APEDA shall be the chairman of each of these forums. The forums will meet at least once every two months, to discuss recommendations on issues pertaining to the export.
The recommendations of the forum will be placed in the product committee / Authority of APEDA. The Forum will keep in close contact with the concerned organization of the Ministry of Agriculture such as MIDH, Extension, NPPO, etc., DGFT, Ministry of Civil Aviation, MoFPI, etc. to further the interest of agricultural export.
