Nandan Nilekani to promote e-payment systems in country

The government has appointed a 13-member committee of Chief Ministers headed by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu to promote digital payment systems to bring transparency, financial inclusion and prepare a roadmap in this regard. Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani who supported PM Narendra Modi’s demonetisation has been nominated on the panel.

Apart from Mr. Naidu, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Sikkim CM Pawan Kumar Chamling, Puducherry CM V. Narayanasamy, Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis are also members of the committee along with NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya, and Amitabh Kant CEO, NITI Aayog.

Boston Consulting Group Chairman Janmejaya Sinha, netCORE Managing Director Rajesh Jain, iSPIRIT Co—founder Sharad Sharma and IIM (Ahmedabad) Professor (Finance) Jayant Varma are special invitees .

The panel will also outline measures for rapid expansion and adoption of the system of digital payments like cards (debit, credit and pre-paid), 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.

Nilekani is an electrical engineer who studied at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and went on to become one of the six co-founders of Indian Software giant Infosys. Nilekani was appointed chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) by the then prime minister Manmohan Singh. He was the face of UPA government’s “Adhaar” initiative.

The panel will work towards increasing awareness of e-transactions among general public, and would come up with ways to publicise advantages of going cashless.