DEA Addl Secretary Stresses for Innovation by Fintech
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K Rajaraman, Additional Secretary, Investment and IER, Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), Ministry of Finance, has emphasized the need for creating an environment for Fintech companies to partner with large financial institutions and offer innovative solutions.
Addressing a web-conference ‘PICUP Fintech’ organised by FICCI jointly with the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA), Rajaraman said: “With all the partnership that we have, we should be able to have an environment which enables the Fintech industry to innovate. It will also provide better penetration of financial services, security, and lower cost of business. Ultimately, this will offer better convenience and comfort to the users.”
Rajaraman further said that there are opportunities for Fintech to collaborate with companies in the insurance, pension sector also. “There is an opportunity for us to harness and marry the Fintech companies with the flagship programs of the government. I urge the insurance industry to collaborate on micro insurance and micro pension schemes rolled out by the government,” he said.
To promote innovations in the Fintech sector, Rajaraman said that most of the last mile KYC and other issues are being sorted by the regulators. “SEBI, IRDA and RBI have already rolled out regulatory sandbox which will enable the next wave of innovations benefiting the financial services sector,” he noted. Elaborating on the initiatives taken by the govt, he added that we are working in the inter-ministerial steering committee on Fintech to support the sector. We are also working with other countries to enable cross border innovations, he said.
He also stressed on the need to promote small investors to invest in the capital market. “Investment by Indians in the financial markets has been slowly rising, but a lot more work needs to be done to ensure that an ordinary citizen can invest effortlessly in the capital market. This is also a challenge that lies before us to enable investment advisory services comfortably for the ordinary Indian,” Rajaraman added.
He further said that during the pandemic, the digital payment transactions have also improved and soon will explode as more and more preference is given to digital transactions. “Digital payments have come back to almost 85-90 per cent of the transactions in January and February. I believe in some time, this is going to explode because now people have realised the importance of going digital,” said Rajaraman during the webinar held on September 7.
He also said that the committee for payment market infrastructure and banks for international settlement is coming up with a roadmap on the cross-border payment system. “All stakeholders must work together to seize the opportunity to open up cheaper payment corridors across the borders,” added Rajaraman.
Rajnish Kumar, Chairman, IBA and Chairman, SBI expressed hope that the pandemic situation will improve in next 3-4 months. He further said that Fintech companies have played an important role in strengthening the financial sector and providing many innovative solutions leveraging the latest technology.
He said that globally many countries have adopted the open banking system and India is also adopting this. “Aadhaar and UPI today are receiving global recognition. With all large companies becoming part of this, it is leading to a Fintech revolution. The regulatory sandbox is providing a lot of innovation in the financial sector,” Kumar added.
He said that all banks are coming forward and supporting the Fintech companies. “As far as the Indian financial system is concerned, a partnership between the large players and the Fintech is a win-win situation. There are challenges of scaling-up which at times arise, but it can also be resolved. The innovations which the Fintech can bring are amazing,” said Kumar.
T Rabi Sankar, Executive Director, RBI said that Fintech has gathered the required pace in redefining the way companies and customers are consuming finance. He added that we need to further work on adopting the global best practices in terms of digital penetration. He added that RBI has been focusing on innovation through the regulatory sandbox. “We are also coming up with an Innovation hub to create ideas using evolving technologies tat will be useful for the financial sector,” said Sankar.
Sunil Mehta, Chief Executive, IBA said that digital lending is evolving and would require greater involvement of Fintech. He said that there is also an equal opportunity for the Fintech in the e-commerce sector with a growing number of online customers.
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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.
