NEW DELHI: The Centre has constituted a 13-member committee of chief ministers headed by Andhra Pradesh’s Chandrababu Naidu to promote digital payment systems to promote transparency, financial inclusion and also prepare a roadmap in this regard.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Madhya Pradesh’s Singh Chouhan, Sikkim’s Pawan Kumar Chamling, Puducherry’s V Narayanasamy, Maharashtra’s Devendra Fadnavis are also members of the committee along with NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya and NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant.
Former Unique Identification Authority of India chairman Nandan Nilekani, Boston Consulting Group chairman Janmejaya Sinha, netCORE Managing Director Rajesh Jain, iSPIRIT co-founder Sharad Sharma and Indian Institute of Management- Ahmedabad professor Jayant Varma are special invitees to the chief ministers’ committee.
According to officials, the terms of reference of the committee are identifying global the best practices for implementing an economy primarily based on digital payments and examine the possibility of adopting these global standards in the Indian context.
The panel will also outline measures for rapid expansion and the adoption of the system of digital payments like cards (debit, credit and pre-paid), digital-wallets/e-wallets, internet banking, Unified Payment Interface (UPI), banking apps, etc and shall broadly indicate the roadmap to be implemented in one year.
The panel of chief ministers shall evolve an action plan to reach out to the public at large with the objective to create awareness and help the masses understand the benefits of such a switchover to a digital economy and prepare a roadmap for the administrative machinery in the states to facilitate the adoption of digital modes of financial transactions.