Digital credit will add 1-2% to India's growth: Vaishnaw to Google team

Digital credit in India is going to become bigger than the digital payment system and will add 1-2 per cent growth to the country's economy, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in an online video.

The video reel uploaded on YouTube shows Vaishnaw in conversation with the Google leadership team, including Google Senior Vice President for Devices and Services Rick Osterloh.

During the conversation, Vaishnaw while talking about Svanidhi Scheme said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's work has been focused towards benefitting people at the bottom of the pyramid.

"Digital credit is going to be bigger than digital payments because there is so much entrepreneurial energy out there in the country and the access to credit is what was holding it back. Once you have easy access to credit at a basically competitive rate, I can tell you this country will have 1-2 percentage points of additional growth because of digital credits," the minister said.

He was speaking to the Google leadership on the sidelines of the Google for India event where Osterloh announced that the company's premium smartphone Pixel series will be made in India.

Google at the event announced that GPay will now enable the availability of reliable and responsible formal credit to people and small businesses by offering customised credit products from some of India's top lenders on the platform.

The minister separately told media on the sidelines of the event that digital credit will increase competition among lenders in the market that will push down the lending rate in the country.