Need more incentives for cashless economy, digitisation: Ex-RBI deputy gov

H R Khan said cash to GDP ratio in India was at 12% as against 5-7% in other developing economies

Former deputy governor of Reserve Bank of India, H R Khan, on Wednesday said there was a need for more incentives to increase digital transactions and achieve a cashless economy.

He noted that there were some incentives after the demonetisation of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes in November 2016.

"Post demonetisation, there were some ups and downs but digital transactions are going up compared to what was prevailing a year ago. There was a need for more of such incentives at different levels," Khan said.

He was speaking at the inaugural session of a three-day conference on mining intelligence on knowledge exploration (MIKE) being organised by the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT) in Hyderabad.

Though the digital economy was good for growth in the GDP, Khan said the cash to GDP ratio in the country was at 12 per cent as against 5 to 7 per cent in other developing economies.

On the innovation in digital economy, he said the fintech companies and banks should collaborate and work together as both should "co-exist".

IDRBT's director A S Ramsastry said the institute, an arm of the RBI, is stepping up research work in emerging fields such as block chain, analytics, cyber security and cloud-based payment systems, among others.

Eminent researchers from USA, Russia, Norway, South Korea, among others, will be presenting papers during the MIKE conference, Ramsastry said.