NEW DELHI: The government’s premier think tank NITI Aayog has constituted a committee of chief ministers to examine and promote the use of digital payment systems across the country.
Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu is the convenor of the 13-member committee. Other members include chief ministers of Odisha, MP, Sikkim, Puducherry and Maharashtra, NITI Aayog vice chairman Arvind Panagariya, its CEO Amitabh Kant, and five special invitees including Nandan Nilekani, former chairman of Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI).
“The move is in line with the government’s thinking to promote transparency, financial inclusion and a healthy financial ecosystem nationwide, and to give a boost to the adoption of digital payments systems by people at the grass root levels and small businesses,” Aayog said in a statement on Wednesday.
As per the terms of reference of the committee, it shall identify the global best practices for implementing an economy primarily based on digital payment and examine the possibility of their adoption. “The committee shall identify and outline measures for rapid expansion and adoption of the system of digital payments like cards (debit, credit and prepaid), digital wallets/e-wallets, internet banking, Unified Payments Interface (UPI), banking apps, etc., and shall broadly indicate the roadmap to be implemented in one year,” Aayog said.
The committee will evolve an action plan to create awareness and help the public understand benefits of a switchover to digital economy. It shall prepare a roadmap for the administrative machineries in the states to facilitate adoption of digital modes of financial transactions.
Special invitees in the committee include Boston Consulting Group chairman Janmejaya Sinha, netCore managing director Rajesh Jain, iSPIRIT cofounder Sharad Sharma and IIM-Ahmedabad professor Jayant Verma besides Nilekani.