Demonetisation: CMs, bankers meet RBI guv to discuss road map to go cashless

The committee will discuss and bring about a roadmap for complete digital shift for the Indian economy

A committee of chief ministers (CM), bankers and technocrats, headed by Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu, met Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Urjit Patel and other deputy governors on Thursday to discuss how to implement the digital push at the state level and also the impact of demonetisation.
 
The attendees discussed the road map towards complete digital transformation but more specifically how the push could be implemented at the state level.
 
The committee discussed “using the current infrastructure (Aadhaar-enabled instruments, unified payment interface, point of sales machines, mobile phones etc) and how do we accelerate that,” Axis Bank Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Shikha Sharma told reporters after the meeting.
 
There was no time period fixed for the road map, but Sharma said the committee would look to implement it “as fast as we can”.
 
According to sources, the attendees discussed in detail how to move the state-level transactions completely to the digital platform as various services involve a lot of paper work and payments in cash. CMs and representatives of various states discussed how those services, such as municipal taxes, land revenue, property tax, electricity bill collection, various licence fees etc could be shifted to the digital platform.
 
Apart from Naidu, the committee members include Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Sikkim CM Pawan Kumar Chamling, Puducherry CM V Narayanasamy, NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya and NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant. Not everyone could attend the meeting in person but were connected through video-conferencing, sources said.  Nandan Nilekani, former chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India, who has been roped in by the government to give a push to digitisation in India, was a special invitee to the meetings.
 
Bankers were represented by State Bank of India Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya, HDFC Bank MD Aditya Puri, ICICI Bank MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar, Axis Bank MD and CEO Shikha Sharma and Bank of Baroda MD & CEO P S Jayakumar.
 
The meeting was held at 10:30 am at the RBI headquarters on Thursday.