India, a case study in digital financial inclusion: Telecom Minister

With over billion mobiles, 325 million broadband connections and 306 million new bank accounts, India has become a case study in digital financial inclusion, said Communications Minister Manoj Sinha on Thursday.

“India is a leading case study of commitment to digital transformation and financial inclusion. The 500-million mobile connections in rural areas offers an opportunity to achieve digital and financial inclusion,” he said at the first Financial Inclusion Global Initiative (FIGI) symposium, being hosted by India and attended by delegates from across the world.

Sinha said the Unique Identification Number (Aadhar) helped in linking and disbursing money directly to the beneficiaries under the government’s various welfare schemes.

“As India is poised to become a $10 trillion economy in the next decade, expansion of financial services and financial inclusion are imperative through innovative approaches. The impact of inclusion can only be compared to the industrial revolution,” he said.

As a leader in ICT and IT-enabled services, India was committed to help the global community in achieving the Sustained Development Goals (SDG) through digital financial inclusion, he added.

“As we believe in multilateral cooperation for global and regional development, we hail the International Telecommunication Union, World Bank, Bank of International Settlements and the (Bill) Gates Foundation for taking up financial inclusion in the digital way as a global initiative,” he said.

The two-day symposium will make actionable recommendations to face the challenges in transforming the government digital and providing on-demand services to the citizens with transparency and certainty.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Chairman Ram Sewak Sharma, Telecommunications Secretary Aruna Sundararajan, Telecom Commission Chairman Ajay Prakash Sawhney, Electronics and IT Ministry Secretary Anuradha Mitra and other senior officials also addressed the gathering.