Refashioning Finance In India

- Deepika Asthana

From angootha-chaap to verifying everything with your thumb—the journey of an average Indian has come a full circle. Today, we can purchase groceries, get investment advice, buy investment products, buy insurance and even avail credit, online. Nearly every aspect of our daily activities can be conducted digitally, slowly making documentation and physical presence, relics of the past. All of this is being enabled by technological innovation, which has pervaded every nook and cranny of our lives.

The fact that you cannot listen to the radio without hearing the line Paytm karo atleast once, is a testament to the pervasiveness of fintech in India. The financial services sector, which has been relatively slow in the adoption of technology, has now suddenly taken to it like fish to water. A huge opportunity lies at this crossroads of finance and technology. And that opportunity is fintech. “Fintech is increasingly becoming an integral part of our ecosystem as they bring along opportunities to streamline daily processes, security and data management as well as customer service”, believes Kiran Shetty, CEO and Regional Head, India and South Asia, SWIFT.

India’s evolution as a progressive fintech nation has been nothing short of a miracle. It has been brought about due to a structured attempt by the government to perpetuate digital adoption. The first step towards this was to solve for identity with Aadhaar. The next step was to ensure that every individual has a bank account or equivalent to store her money. The third leap was to build scalable platforms to move money (UPI, IMPS) and the final was to allow banks and fintechs access to a platform like UPI to innovate and co-create.