Infosys chairman-co-founder Nandan Nilekani
Payments through the UPI interface touched a record high of Rs 12.82 lakh crore in December, registering 782 crore transactions
BENGALURU:
India has reached only halfway on its digital journey and the big question lurking at us is how to create a digital-first economy and society, leveraging the power of modern technology, Infosys chairman-co-founder Nandan Nilekani said here on Thursday.
Speaking at the Microsoft’s ‘Future Ready Technology Summit’, Nilekani told Satya Nadella that the ultimate goal is to improve the lives of more than 1 billion people with digital tools.
“We need to ensure a more equitable, more inclusive, open access digital transformation,” said Nilekani.
He hailed digital initiatives like Aadhaar (which he himself executed successfully) UPI-based digital payments and account aggregator system that are “democratising the digital transformation”.
Payments through the UPI interface touched a record high of Rs 12.82 lakh crore in December, registering 782 crore transactions.
On Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), Nilekani said that the government initiative will transform the e-commerce landscape in the country in years to come.
The government’s ONDC has established its baby footprint in 85 cities with 800 merchants and 26 participants and is set for a fruitful 2023 with the support of industry players, according to T Koshy, MD-CEO, ONDC.
With 26 participants and more than 800 merchants, ONDC is rapidly expanding its footsteps and is on its way of transforming digital commerce in India, Koshy said last week.
As India embarks on its digital journey with full steam, Microsoft wishes to move in and provide every part of its tech stack to the country and its innovators, to help it become the $1 trillion digital economy as the country spends more on its tech sector, the company’s Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella said.
Nadella told IANS that India’s tax spend as a percentage of its GDP is becoming normalised when compared to the developed world, and is now among the top 10 countries.
“I ask, what happens if India spends more on its tech sector? What is the productivity gain that the world can benefit from? And here, we want to move in with our world-class offerings,” Nadella said during a closed-door session.
“We want to be the infrastructure provider. We want to be the developer amplifier. We want to provide every part of our tech stack to basically help the country gain that leverage towards becoming a $1 trillion digital economy soon,” he emphasised.
At the opening ceremony of the BRICS Business Forum in virtual mode last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India’s digital sector valuations will cross $1 trillion soon.
Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said in November that over the next 5-7 years, “we will surely see our trillion-dollar digital economy goal become reality.”