Maharashtra to support over 500 startups under Fintech Policy

Will need better connectivity to take fintech services to rural areas

The Maharashtra government on Friday said it is seeking to add over 500 startups to its registry so that they can participate in government projects and policies.

“As far as the road ahead is concerned, we envisage that in near future we will at least have 500 FinTech startups which are enabled, stable, have successful sizeable funding and are going to make India and Maharashtra proud,” Joint secretary and officer on special duty to Chief Minister Kaustubh Dhavse said.

Dhavse was addressing the FinTechX Conference organized by Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI)

Last week, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced the country’s first state-level dedicated fintech policy which included a startup “Sandbox” on the lines of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). 
 

The sandbox allows startups to register their applications for fintech companies and banks to work upon.

The regulatory sandbox approach, pioneered by MAS, allows startups to test their technology under highly controlled but real-time conditions and has also been recommended by the Reserve Bank of India in recent times.

MAS’s sandbox approach allows businesses to tinker with the legal complications that their technology/financial solutions can run into and get guidance from regulatory bodies on how they can reduce risk to the business as well as consumers.

Fadnavis had announced that the state will be providing tax sops, financial benefits and discounts on essential services like electricity and internet connectivity to boost fintech under the policy.

All startups will be registering themselves under Maharashtra FinTech Registry to avail various incentives like the opportunity to represent them, online auctions, participating government policies.

Dhavase, however, added that internet connectivity will remain a chief concern for fintech when they try to tap into rural areas for their consumers. 

“There is a concern of connectivity in last mile service delivery and the government is working towards that by providing dedicated fibre connectivity which has already reached 14000 villages under the Bharatnet project and 50 per cent of its target is already complete,” he said. 

He added that internet connectivity will also help these companies collate more relevant data on these areas which have so far been limited to urban and semi-urban areas.

Maharashtra government has already announced a partnership with Andhra Pradesh government to help them adopt a similar fintech model.