India’s digital economy will grow: Finance Minister said that the country’s digital economy will be Rs 62 lakh crore in the coming 8 years
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has predicted India’s digital economy to reach $ 800 billion (about Rs 62 lakh crore) by 2030. The reason behind this, he told the increasing penetration of the Internet and the increasing income. He said this while addressing the IIT Bombay Alumni Association.
He further said that there are more than 6,300 fintech companies in India, out of which 28% are in technology sector, 27% in payments, 16% in lending and 9% in banking basic infra, while more than 20% are in other sectors. Sitharaman further said that the total valuation of India’s fintech industry will increase to $ 150 billion (about Rs 12 lakh crore) in the next three years.
Fintech startups growing with technology like e-KYC and e-Aadhaar
The Finance Minister said that most of the startups are from the unicorn fintech sector and ease of funding has helped them grow. He said that we are seeing a lot of growth in the funds being raised from Indian fintech startups.
On the government’s policy to help accelerate the digital economy, Sitharaman said that the government has facilitated access to the stock market with technologies like e-KYC and e-Aadhaar and helped retail investors to come forward. He said that the total number of retail investor accounts has almost doubled from about 4.50 crore as on March 2016 to 8.82 crore as on March 31, 2021.
Digital Banking Units will have better access to banking service
Referring to a report, he said that due to the 10% increase in internet penetration, GDP per capita has seen a growth of 3.9%. Talking about promoting the digital economy, he said that in the recent budget, 75 Digital Banking Units (DBUs) have been announced. With this they can work on serving multiple districts from one place but we are also targeting to cover 75 districts and I think better access to DPU banking service, capability, service and more on own finance There will be control.
Proposal to set up 75 digital banking units in the budget
In the budget speech, the Finance Minister has proposed to set up 75 digital banking units by scheduled commercial banks in 75 districts of the country on completion of 75 years of independence. Regarding the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Sitharaman said that in February, 4.5 billion transactions were done, transferring more than 8.2 trillion.