Highlighting how the fintech segment has marvelled in the country over the years, Amitabh Kant said that India provides an accommodative ecosystem promoting technology and digital prowess, which inspires confidence in the country and follow investments. “Google’s $10 billion fund is a testament to that,” he said.

Kant said that the financial technology sector has been the shining star of India’s startup and technology ecosystem, enabling seamless transition from physically connected to a physically distant but socially connected environment.

“India is following the global trend of fintech adoption curve. Early work in payments and fund transfers is now leading to increased appetite for digital lending and gradually leading to activities, such as insurance wealth management and traditional deposit public savings accounts. Covid-19 has accelerated the adoption of digital means of financial services. It has spurred the adoption of contactless digital payments. And there has been a surge in different payment volumes across online grocery stores, small retail outlets, among others,” he said at the virtual event of Global Fintech Fest.

He pointed out that UPI has registered its highest ever transaction volume and value in June 2020, which is more than 100,300 million transactions amounting to over 2.6 lakh crore transactions.

“Despite all the disruptions caused by COVID-19, our digital payment system has worked smoothly. And this is what drives our confidence that we are prepared for a post COVID-19 future as we ramp up our ambitions in moving up the fintech value chain,” he said.

He mentioned that the Committee of Deepening of Digital Payments have made targets with respect to the growing fintech segment. This includes 10 x increase in per capita digital transactions from FY 2019 to FY 21-22; a 2x increase in digital transaction value as percentage of GDP from 769 per cent in FY19 to 1500 per cent in FY 21-22, and a 3x increase the number of active digital payments user per month from 100 billion to 300 billion.

He also said that the future of lending will also be digital. According to research estimates, a total retail loans to be disbursed digitally by 2023 could be over 1 trillion and this can be possible by the increase in access to the internet, digital influence and digital purchase.

“The future of lending in my mind will be digital. Digital lending will constitute 50% of the total lending by 2023,” he said.

He added that strong goals are also expected in SME loans and personal loans with increasing penetration of digital credits. Insurance sector in India is expected to grow by 4x in 2025, with an expected premium of $250 billion by 2025.