India is at the vanguard of the digital revolution and its monetary inclusion journey may be an instance for different creating nations to look at, senior UN officers and economists have mentioned. Speaking on Thursday at the ‘India Roundtable on Financial Inclusion’, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj mentioned the nation takes monetary inclusion critically and it has led to social and financial empowerment of the folks.
“We believe India’s financial inclusion journey can be an example for other developing countries to look at,” she mentioned.
The dialogue, organised by the Permanent Mission of India to the UN, aimed at bringing to centre stage the function of monetary inclusion in attaining the Sustainable Development Goals.
Delivering the keynote tackle at the session attended by senior UN officers, ambassadors, diplomats and analysts, Columbia University Professor and former Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog Arvind Panagariya mentioned India performed a “pioneering role” in creating the thought of monetary inclusion itself.
“Financial inclusion, economic inclusion and growth – they all go hand in hand, and they, in turn, also influence things like health and SDGs. These are all very interrelated, interconnected elements, and there is much that India can offer today in terms of its own experience to the other developing countries,” Panagariya, who has previously been India’s G20 Sherpa, mentioned.
In her remarks, Kamboj mentioned the world is midway via its journey in direction of the 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets. “Unfortunately, the report card so far is not good. The SDG Progress Report shows that just 12 per cent of the Sustainable Development Goal targets are on track. Progress on 50 per cent is weak and insufficient,” she mentioned.
In this context, monetary inclusion assumes larger significance, Kamboj mentioned, including that it’s crucial to inclusive development and general financial growth.
“If we are to achieve SDG goals and 2030 agenda, financial inclusion is inevitable. At its core, financial inclusion is a fundamental element in targeting SDGs. Financial inclusion is essential for people to meet their basic needs and an imperative to advance socio-economic development,” she mentioned.
Under-Secretary-General and Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Usha Rao-Monari mentioned she may be very inspired by the “India story”.
“When you turn to India, it is with pride that I’d like to say that India is at the vanguard of a digital revolution. Simply to say that India accounts for almost 40 per cent of all real-time digital payments in the world. And that’s based on the India Stack, it’s based on systems that have been put together over the past decade or so.” Rao-Monari quoted India’s G20 Chief Coordinator Harsh Vardhan Shringla, who had mentioned {that a} “robust and citizen-centric digital public infrastructure plays a major role in achieving multiple national goals, which include financial inclusion, social security, health insurance, digital transactions and easy access to credit while providing the building blocks for a productive, resilient and equitable society.”
Rao-Monari added that at UNDP and United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), the 2 elements of the UN system which might be deeply concerned in digital public infrastructure and monetary inclusion, “this philosophy, these remarks resonate very strongly.” Asserting that monetary inclusion is taken critically in India, Kamboj outlined the varied insurance policies undertaken by the Modi authorities that has made tens of millions of folks half of the formal monetary system.
She famous that in 2009, solely 17 per cent of adults in India had financial institution accounts, 15 per cent used digital funds, one in 25 had a singular ID doc and about 37 per cent had cell phones.
“These numbers have seen a meteoric rise — today, tele density has reached up to 93 per cent, over a billion people have a digital ID document, more than 80 per cent have bank accounts, and as of 2022, over 600 crore digital payment transactions are completed per month,” Kamboj mentioned.
Kamboj added that the Jan Dhan account, Aadhar digital ID, cell banking and direct profit transfers have introduced the marginalised sections of society into the formal monetary system, “revolutionising the path of transparent and accountable governance by empowering the people.” As of November 2022, a number of giant central schemes have paid practically $95 billion (roughly Rs. 7,76,300 crore) via over 10 billion profitable transactions.
Panagariya mentioned that in India, “financial inclusion today is not just financial inclusion, but it is now turning to digital financial inclusion.” He added that India Stack, the public digital payment system created by the country, is a “remarkable piece of infrastructure” that is efficient and cost-effective.
Panagariya also stressed that the manner in which digital payments have expanded in India is “breathtaking”.
He emphasised the three elements in a development strategy that go together — financial inclusion, economic inclusion and growth.
“Ultimately growth has to be at the centre of it all,” he said.
At the session, Rao-Monari moderated a panel discussion which included Permanent Representative of Indonesia Ambassador Arrmanatha Nasir, UN Secretary General’s Envoy on Technology Amandeep Singh Gill and Chair of Force for Good and CEO Greater Pacific Capital Ketan Patel.
The discussion emphasised leveraging digital public infrastructure to amplify efforts, bridge gaps, and scale up the reach of financial inclusion tools.
Gill said financial inclusion is about “human rights, human dignity and human empowerment.”
He added that “what is very interesting about the India story, the India Stack” and similar examples from other parts of the world, such as eastern Africa’s experience with M-PESA and UPI in India, is the common aspect that, unlike the FinTech approach to deploying technology for finance “these are bottom-up approaches.”
Gill said that the JAM trinity of Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile is a “combinatorial approach. To drive quick uptake, you are bringing together different pieces in a creative way, and you are working across not just tech but two other very important parts of the tech equation – people and processes.”
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