While addressing the annual 5th Global Fintech Fest here on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi seemed to be so sure that he was returning to power in five years as India's "best is yet to come." PM Modi expressed confidence that the robust ecosystem of Fintech in India would continue to play a huge role in providing the people of this country with a certain quality lifestyle.
At this, the PM smiled and said he was of the belief that he would "be present in the 10th edition of the GFF, five years later" (2029), to a loud round of applause.
Addressing the keynote, PM Modi said the nation's economy and markets were in a celebratory mood during the ongoing festival season as the GFF is taking place in the city of dreams, Mumbai.
While hailing the Fintech innovation, the PM said the foreign visitors to the country, who earlier would be amazed by her cultural diversity, were now astounded by its Fintech diversity too, which could be witnessed from the time they landed at the airport.
This Fintech revolution has been powered by over a record $31 billion of investment in the last 10 years and a start-up growth of 500 per cent, supported by the affordability of mobiles and data along with zero balance Jan Dhan bank accounts.
Today, the total number of broadband users in the country has risen from 60 million to 940 million in the last decade. Above 530 million have a Jan Dhan bank account. There's hardly any 18-year-old without an Aadhaar Card, a digital identity, in the country. We have, in a way, connected to banks the population equivalent of the whole European Union," Modi said.
He said, "The trinity of Jan Dhan, Aadhaar Card and Mobile has broken down the mentality of 'cash is king' and paved the way for almost half of the world's digital transactions to take place in India.
It has turned the country's UPI into a major Fintech example before the world and allowed 24x7 banking services to reach the remotest corners of the country in all-weather conditions. Even during the Covid-19 pandemic, the banking system of India remained functioning without any breaks.
Now, as Jan Dhan is celebrated with the 10th anniversary, the PM termed it a massive medium for women's empowerment, too, considering that over 29 crores of women are having a bank account that opened up new horizons of savings and investments.
Under the aegis of the largest microfinance scheme, Mudra Yojana has disbursed credit worth Rs 27 trillion thus far based on Jan Dhan accounts, wherein women beneficiaries account for a staggering 70 per cent.
The three-day GFF, concluding on Friday, played host to around 800 speakers spanning 350-plus sessions with participation of over 80,000 in areas like digital payments, lending, insurance, wealth management, etc organised by the Payments Council of India, National Payments Corporation of India and the Fintech Convergence Council.
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