Govt Ropes in Nandan Nilekani to Bring Digital Economy to Villages

The move is aimed at ending reliance on cash in thousands of villages in the country.

Infosys co-founder and former Aadhar Chairman Nandan Nilekani. (Photo courtesy: The News Minute/Wikimedia Commons)

To counter the backlash over its decision to demonetise high-value Rs 500 and 1,000 currency notes, and promote Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream of a cashless economy, the government has drafted fresh plans and roped in Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani to help spread the use of digital payments in India.

Nilekani has joined a 13-member committee tasked with bringing a cashless economy to the masses. The committee is looking at ways to make digital payments usable in rural areas by making point-of-sale machines accessible.

This move is aimed at ending reliance on cash in thousands of villages in the country where almost every transaction is done in hard currency.

However, the tech stalwart has his work cut out for him. Bringing equipment such as point of sale machines, and technologies such as mobile wallets to areas where hundreds of millions still lack phones and web access will prove to be an uphill task for even Nilekani who successfully spearheaded the country's biometrics-based Aadhaar unique identity program.

Financial Architecture in Place to Push for Cashless Economy: Nilekani

Addressing a gathering on ‘Road to Cashless Economy: How Government, Regulation, Technology and Markets Come Together’, Nilekani said:

Bulk of India’s transactions are merchant payments and that has to become cashless and that cannot be done in a historical system because the card system is designed for top-end users. India has the underlying digital financial architecture in place to get this going. How quickly the government can reach everyone is a question of execution and speed.

Nilekani added that switch to a cashless economy is not only a way to solve the cash crunch, but also can reignite economic growth in the country.

(With inputs from Bloomberg Technology, Business Insider.)