Fintechs should see agri, rural areas as new markets, not just social responsibility: FM Nirmala Sitharaman
'Agriculture and rural areas need more innovations so that farmers will have to be connected to the markets better. Every fintech firm should view rural India as a fertile ground not just as a social responsibility but as an opportunity to create new markets. And you'll know from the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) companies that in the rural area today demand is reviving and sustaining itself and it is there that we need to have greater participation from our side,' the Finance Minister said on Wednesday at the Digital Payments Awards 2025, hosted by the Ministry of Finance's Department of Financial Services. Sitharaman also said fintechs should participate more when it comes to providing credit to Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
The Finance Minister said many other countries could only dream about the speed with which Indian companies were innovating in the digital payments space, with even several advanced countries not making progress at the same pace. 'There are several countries which appreciate and equally ask us if there can be an interaction which can be enabled,' Sitharaman said.
A host of companies won at the Digital Payments Awards, including Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, and UCO Bank in the public sector bank category and HDFC Bank, City Union Bank, and IDFC FIRST Bank among private banks. In the small finance and payments bank categories, Equitas Small Finance Bank and India Post Payments Bank were named winners. Among fintechs, Whatsapp Meta, Navi, and Mobikwik won joint first place in the third-party app providers category, while PhonePe, Paytm, and Google Pay were awarded the top three places in the offline digital payments acceptance infrastructure category.
'Push the boundaries'
While lauding the 'light-touch regulation, heavy encouragement' approach, the Finance Minister said India still needs 'a bulk of its population' to benefit from financial inclusion. To become a developed country by 2047, Sitharaman called on those in attendance to 'push the boundaries'. 'You have set pioneering targets, achieved them. But now we need to take it further and set standards,' she said.
Noting that the fintech adoption rate in India was 87 per cent as against 67 per cent globally, the Finance Minister said nearly Rs 44 lakh crore had been transferred through Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT) since 2014, resulting in savings of Rs 3.48 lakh crore.
Going forward, the Finance Minister said financial inclusion should be advanced even further, with regional languages playing a bigger role, strengthened by voice-based services. Account aggregators, she added, could unlock new possibilities, with the number of entities on the account aggregator platform rising to nearly 700 as of March 2025 from 24 three years ago.
Sitharaman also highlighted the need to improve literacy and cybersecurity, with solutions needed to ensure people don't fall prey to being 'digitally arrested' or that fly-by-night operators don't take away their money. 'We need a set of fintech companies which are constantly working on giving solutions for the newer challenges which are arising.'
Speaking earlier at the awards, M Nagaraju, Secretary, Department of Financial Services, lauded the accomplishments of Unified Payments Interface as a mode of digital payment, saying its success had crossed borders as it was live in seven countries, namely Bhutan, France, Mauritius, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and the UAE. Nagaraju echoed Sitharaman's priorities for the future, naming deepening digital payment adoption across sectors and geographies, strengthening cybersecurity and fraud prevention frameworks, promoting digital and financial literacy at the grassroot level, and 'ensuring that digital payments remain inclusive, secure, and citizen-centric'.
Make for the world
According to Sitharaman, India's fintech companies and their innovations have the potential to become global public goods that can benefit other emerging and developing economies, which would open new markets for Indian firms.
'Our players must aim to export our successful models abroad. We have the talent, we have the market scale, and we have also proven solutions. So fintech revolution in India will further flourish,' she said. Pointing out that India's fintech market is projected to grow to over $400 billion by 2028-29, Sitharaman said the scale of opportunity is immense and that the sector's 'best chapters are yet to be written'.
Siddharth Upasani is a Deputy Associate Editor with The Indian Express. He reports primarily on data and the economy, looking for trends and changes in the former which paint a picture of the latter. Before The Indian Express, he worked at Moneycontrol and financial newswire Informist (previously called Cogencis). Outside of work, sports, fantasy football, and graphic novels keep him busy.
... Read More
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Economic Times
a few seconds ago
- Economic Times
Stock Radar: NYKAA stock breaks out from 4-week consolidation; likely to hit fresh 52-week highs – what should investors do?
FSN E-Commerce Ventures (NYKAA), part of the e-retail industry, broke out from a 4-week consolidation on the weekly charts which has opened room for the stock to head higher and might even hit fresh 52-week traders can look to buy the stock for a target of Rs 238 in the next 3-4 weeks, suggest e-retail stock hit a high of Rs 229 on August 23, 2024. It closed at Rs 225 on August 20, stock got stuck in a range
Indian Express
32 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Online gaming companies move to shut paid operations as gaming Bill gets Rajya Sabha nod
The Rajya Sabha's approval of the online gaming Bill Thursday has drawn the final curtain on India's booming real-money gaming industry. What was once a bustling digital arena of wagers and winnings now stands eerily silent, as leading platforms suspend paid play and others fold entirely. Lawmakers hail the measure as a shield against harm, but to thousands of workers and millions of players, it feels like the lights have dimmed on a once-thriving stage. Opinion trading platform Probo, in a message displayed on its app, said that 'in light of recent developments, we have paused all recharge activities in your best interest,' while requesting users to withdraw funds. Dream11, the country's biggest fantasy sports app and the Indian cricket team's main jersey sponsor, also communicated to its employees that it will wind down its real money operations. Zupee, another gaming platform, said it was discontinuing paid games, with users able to play free titles. 'Everyone will shut down paid operations for now, as the industry prepares a legal roadmap to challenge the law,' a senior gaming industry executive said. The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025, now passed by both houses of Parliament, outlaws online money gaming services and penalises their celebrity endorsers. The Bill has been drafted over national security concerns related to online gaming platforms, including the use of digital wallets and cryptocurrencies for money laundering and illicit fund transfers, these platforms serving as potential messaging and communication grounds for terror organisations, and offshore entities circumventing Indian tax and legal obligations, among others. The government will prohibit any person from offering online games in India, failing which they could be imprisoned for up to three years, and penalised Rs 1 crore. Those promoting such platforms, such as social media influencers, will also face jail time of two years, and a penalty of Rs 50 lakh. The government will also prohibit banks and financial institutions from facilitating financial transactions on such platforms. The Bill applies to all online money gaming platforms irrespective of whether they are games of skill or chance, a distinction the industry had lobbied hard for in the past. The Bill said that the unchecked expansion of online money gaming services has been linked to 'unlawful activities including financial fraud, money-laundering, tax evasion, and in some cases, the financing of terrorism, thereby posing threats to national security, public order and the integrity of the State'. The parallel proliferation of online money games accessible through mobile phones, computers and the internet, and offering monetary returns against user deposits has led to 'serious social, financial, psychological and public health harms, particularly among young individuals and economically disadvantaged groups,' it said.
Indian Express
32 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Can explore pilot on regulated platform for pre-IPO share trading, says Sebi Chairman
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is considering to launch a pilot programme for a regulated trading platform where companies can trade shares before their initial public offerings (IPO). 'Can we think of an initiative on a pilot basis for a regulated venue where pre-IPO companies can choose to trade subject to certain disclosures?' the regulator's Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey said. The new platform will help in reducing grey market activity in companies unlisted shares. The grey market refers to the unofficial trading of securities even before being listed on stock exchanges. This is an unregulated market and works on demand and supply, with investors purchasing or selling shares notionally in the grey market even before they get listed. The Sebi is also mulling ways to improve the tenor and maturity profiles of the derivative products, its Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey said on Thursday. The proposed measures would be aimed at introducing longer-term derivative products, he said. Derivative products derive their value from underlying assets that could include stocks, commodities and currencies. Derivatives or futures and options (F&O) markets assist in better price discovery, improve market liquidity and allow investors to manage their risks better. 'We have often stated that equity derivatives play a crucial role in capital formation, but we must ensure quality and balance. We will consult with stakeholders on ways to improve, in a calibrated manner, the tenor and maturity profiles of derivative products, so that they better serve hedging and long-term investing,' Pandey said at the annual capital markets conference organised by FICCI. Currently, most derivatives in the country have either weekly or monthly expiry. Extending the tenure would make these products suitable for hedging and long-term investing. The derivatives segment has been an exponential surge in trading volumes, with the majority of traders incurring losses. A Sebi study released last year found that close to 93 per cent, or 9 out of 10 individual traders, in the equity F&O segment incurred losses, with aggregate loss exceeding Rs 1.8 lakh crore between FY22 and FY24. In the recent past, the markets regulator has announced a raft of reforms to strengthen the derivatives market and to restrain speculative trading. These measures included recalibration of contract size for equity derivatives, rationalization of weekly index derivatives products and increase in tail risk coverage on the day of options expiry. Pandey said that SEBI's approach in relation to equity derivatives has been thoughtful and consultative. The regulator is also looking to deepen the cash equities market, which is the true foundation of capital formation. 'Volumes in the cash market have grown rapidly, doubling in terms of daily traded volumes over a period of just three years. However, much more needs to be done,' he said.
