Priority to be on better banking facilities in rural India: Naveen

Bhubaneswar/New Delhi: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik chosen by the Centre as a member of the Committee of Chief Ministers to prepare roadmap for promotion of digital payment systems in the country today said he would ensure improvement of banking facilities in rural parts.

Commenting on the Centre’s decision, Patnaik said here, “I will work towards better banking facilities which are lacking at present in lots of rural parts of Odisha as well as other parts of the country.”

Notably, the 13-member Committee of Chief Ministers will be headed by Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu will also promote transparency and financial inclusion.

According to officials, the terms of reference of the committee are identifying global best practices for implementing an economy primarily based on digital payment and examine the possibility of adoption of these global standards in the Indian context.

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.

Apart from 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.

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

It shall evolve an action plan to reach out to the public at large with the objective to create awareness and help them understand the benefits of such a switchover to digital economy and would prepare a roadmap for the administrative machineries in the States to facilitate adoption of digital modes of financial transactions.

Also read: Union Cabinet mulls ways to promote cashless transactions

The high level group will also identify and address bottlenecks and indicate solutions pertaining to adoption of the steps required to move towards a digital payments economy.

It will also associate the key stakeholders for implementation of the suggested steps towards a digital payments economy and delineate and adopt measures evolved by the Committee of Officers constituted for the purpose.

It will also examine and address any other associated issues which are not specifically mentioned herein. The Committee may devise its own procedures for conducting business, meetings, constitution of sub-groups, etc.