India is poised to become a $10-trillion economy in the next decade, and this cannot be achieved without expanding the financial services and focussing on innovative approaches for financial inclusion, Union Minister of State for Communications Manoj Sinha said on Thursday.
Speaking at a two-day symposium on Financial Inclusion Global Initiative (FIGI) being held here, the minister said the impact of this revolution of inclusion can only be compared with that of the industrial revolution.
He said that the country is committed to help the international community by sharing experiences and expertise in digital financial inclusion.
"If India could expand financial services from a meagre 65% coverage to more than 99% of households having at least one bank account, India can also help global community especially the regions where the financial services are not available extensively," the minister said.
Sinha added that the Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) app is providing single app to access all the bank accounts created by National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI), and is steadily taking over the financial transactions to digital mode.
"Another important aspect of our work is the focus on providing back-end infrastructure for high speed internet connectivity. Through Bharat-Net one and Bharat-Net two projects, we are connecting each village of the country with information super highways. By the end of this year, more than one lakh villages will be provided with high speed bandwidth of internet," he said.
The symposium is being organised by the Department of Telecommunications, jointly with the International Telecommunication Union and the Bill & Melinda Gades Foundation. Over 200 delegates have registered for the programme from different countries.
