Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw flags off NITI Aayog’s Fintech Open Summit
Author: BI Bureau
New Delhi: In an effort to showcase the importance of the Fintech industry, NITI Aayog, in collaboration with PhonePe, AWS and EY, has organized a three-week-long virtual summit, ‘Fintech Open’ from 7–28 February. The summit was inaugurated on Monday by Union Minister for Railways, Communications, and Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw in the presence of NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Dr Rajiv Kumar. A first-of-its-kind initiative, Fintech Open will bring together regulators, Fintech professionals and enthusiasts, industry leaders, the start-up community, and developers to collaborate, exchange ideas and innovate.
While flagging off the event, Vaishnaw said: “Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we believe in creating open platforms, such as CoWIN and UPI, for healthcare, logistics and other sectors. An open platform is created using public investment, wherein numerous private entrepreneurs, start-ups and developers can join to create new solutions. For example, today, 270 banks are connected with the UPI and many entrepreneurs and start-ups have provided solutions that have helped increase the country’s Fintech adoption rate, which is the highest globally at 87 per cent.”
NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Dr Rajiv Kumar said: “India is witnessing increasing digitization with people getting greater and easier access to financial services. This has led to a shift in consumers’ financial behaviour—from cash to e-wallets and UPI. The expansion of digital payments is an important pivot for creating a more equitable, prosperous and financially inclusive India. The rise of Fintech has accelerated financial inclusion. I am excited to see the countless possibilities that will be presented by the bright minds of our country over the next few weeks.”
Sameer Nigam, Founder and CEO, PhonePe, said: “We are delighted to partner with NITI Aayog on this initiative, which is aimed at accelerating India’s Fintech revolution. The Fintech industry is playing a critical role in facilitating financial inclusion across the country. We look forward to the next few weeks, where we will get an opportunity to collaborate with colleagues from across the industry, to innovate and build meaningful frameworks for the ecosystem.”
A key highlight of the summit will be India’s biggest Fintech hackathon ever, which will provide an opportunity to individual developers and the start-up community to present breakthrough ideas with the potential to solve real-world problems. Additionally, to foster creativity, innovation, and an entrepreneurial mindset among children, another hackathon for school students will also be organized via Atal Innovation Mission’s Atal Tinkering Labs network. /BI/
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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.
