In keeping with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s exhortation for a campaign to promote a cashless or at least a “less cash” economy to ensure that digital fingerprints of most transactions are available, the government on Wednesday constituted a committee of chief ministers representing different political parties.
According to a statement from the Government, the main mandate of the committee is to “examine and implement measures to execute digital payment systems to promote transparency, financial inclusion and ensure a healthy financial ecosystem”.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu will be heading the committee that includes CMs of Odisha, Maharashtra, Puducherry, and Sikkim: Naveen Patnaik, Devendra Fadnavis, V. Narayanasamy, and Pawan Chamling.
Special invitees
Vice-chairman of NITI Aayog, Arvind Panagariya has also been added as a member of the committee. Chief Executive Officer of NITI Aayog, Amitabh Kant will be the member secretary, while former chief of Unique Identification Development Authority of India (UIDAI) Nandan Nilekani, chairman of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Janmejaya Sinha, Rajesh Jain, managing director of netCore, Sharad Sharma, co-founder of iSpirit and Jayant Verma, professor at the IIM, Ahmedabad have been roped in as special invitees.
The terms of reference include “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. It will also identify 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.”
