The roll-out of the goods and services tax (GST) is expected to increase the credit granted to small traders, according to the former Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Chairman Nandan Nilekani.
“Today small businesses in India don’t get enough loans from the formal economy and large part of that is due to the lack of the data about the performance of these businesses,” Nilekani told reporters here on sidelines of the 6th C K Prahalad Memorial Lecture 2017.
“But as companies become data rich, as their digital footprint becomes available through GST. There are eight million small businesses in GST. They all can start getting loans,” he said.
He also added that this credit will have a domino effect on the economy, ultimately creating more number of jobs.
Nilekani, who has also been one of the co-founders of tech-giant, Infosys, also emphasised on the importance of the data security.
“We are in a world that is digitally very heavy. So, we have to figure out how to make things secure. There is no choice in that. And we obviously have to put in place privacy infrastructure for that.”
He also called the setting up of Data Protection Committee, headed by former Supreme Court judge B N Srikrishna by the government as the positive step on this front.
The ten-member committee includes representatives from the department of telecommunications (DoT), the IT ministry, UIDAI and the academic community.
Published 08 August 2017, 19:55 IST