After partnering with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and appointing KPMG as its consultant, the State government is keen on creating a platform to connect with various players considered a pre-requisite for an ecosystem to promote Visakhapatnam as Fintech Valley-Vizag.
IT Minister Nara Lokesh, during his recent visit to Visakhapatnam, said the government’s thrust was on creating trained manpower to attract big players to the city after tying up with Thomson Reuters, Visa, Paytm and other firms. A building taken on rent at Rushikonda was declared India’s first Fintech Tower during December, 2016.
Fintech Valley-Vizag has plans to institute $1 million challenge award for the best fintech startups across the globe. The plan of the government is to create a fintech use case repository, $100 million Fintech Valley Fund for innovation and extend regulatory support through the Chief Minister’s Fintech Advisory Board.
The Chief Minister agreed to chair the board on the request of some of the stakeholders at a meeting here sometime ago.
Special Chief Secretary and IT Advisor to Chief Minister J.A. Chowdary said the response at the Blockchain India Week held in Mumbai to their announcement to hold Blockchain Global Summit in the city on October 9 and 10 and Fintech Global Spring Summit on February 19 to 20 was overwhelming.
He said they were expecting delegates from 52 countries to the Blockchain Summit.
Going by the WannaCry scare all over the world, Visakhapatnam being a fintech hub is expected to contribute its bit in addressing the threats posed by the scamsters.
Asked to comment on the ransom demands by the cyber criminals using Bitcoin payments, city-based startup Blocktrust co-founder Vijayakumar Konda said one should understand the difference between Bitcoin as cryptocurrency and Blockchain as technology underneath it. “We should make a comparison between Blockchain to Internet and Bitcoin to an application such as Paypal that uses Internet technology,” he said.
Doubts persist
However, there is also scepticism among some of the stakeholders on developing the city as a fintech hub. “Even after six months of signing MoUs with several firms, there is no progress on creating the promised employment. There is a need to either bring bankers and regulators to the city or establish strong linkages with them as part luring investors to the city,” CEO of an IT company said.
