Dont hinder innovation, but be more conscious of cost, benefits of crypto, online gaming: CEA

Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran

The regulators should have self-accountability and not stand in the way of innovations, chief economic advisor V Anantha Nageswaran said on December 11.

“In India, where there is extensive financial illiteracy, he said that regulators need to distinguish between not standing in the way of moonshots and in which sectors do we need to be more conscious of social cost and benefits, whether it is crypto, bitcoins and online gaming,” he said.

He was speaking at the Global Economic Policy Forum 2024, organised by the ministry of finance and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

“We should be sure of the criteria we want to set for the regulator to not stand in the way of innovations. The same principle of transparency and social cost benefits that we want to apply to regulated entities and some of their financial innovations should also apply to the regulator themselves,” he said.

The regulators are expected to live by the same principles of transparency that the regulated entities are expected to live by, which means information sharing by regulators. Regulators must be conscious of the limits of their unelected powers, he said.

Unelected powers are not held as accountable as elected powers, so they must impose it upon themselves, the chief economic advisor added.