Shreya Nandi Moneycontrol News
The government's massive currency culling exercise in November has given "extra boost" towards the movement of digital finance, Dhiraj Nayyar Officer on Special Duty and Head of Economics, Finance and Commerce at NITI Aayog said today.
"If you look at the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) data on use of digital payments, there is a sharp rise in the immediate aftermath of demonetisation. Now, the figure has moderated a little" Nayyar said at MoneyTech, 2017.
In November last year, the government had scrapped high-value Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in a bid to fight black money and terror financing. New Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes were introduced thereafter.
The move led to very limited cash in hand for individuals that paved the way for greater use of digital payments.
Nayyar said that apart from the government's initiative to boost digital payments, the industry, as well as various app (mobile application) innovators have given it a massive boost.
"This is now decisively the time to move towards a digital platform," he said, adding that a unique public private partnership will not only play a crucial role for digital innovation, but will also lay the foundation for the financial economy.
Nayyar further said that the four pillars -- biometric-based identification Aadhaar, Jan Dhan Yojna, usage of smartphones, mobile applications, wallets and cost of digital connectivity -- will be the foundation on which digital finance, and financial data inclusion will be built in the next five years.
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