Cards, ATMs will be ‘redundant’ by 2020

Bengaluru, January 8

Amid the big push being given to digital transactions post-demonetisation, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant today said cards, ATMs and Point-of-Sale (POS) machines would become redundant in the country by 2020.

“India is in the midst of a huge, huge disruption in the world of both financial technology and in terms of social innovation... (there is) huge, huge innovation and this disruption will enable India to leapfrog,” he said.

“And by 2020, my view is that in the next two-and-a-half years, India will make all its debit cards, credit cards, all ATM machines, all POS machines totally irrelevant,” Kant told a session at Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2017, a three-day mega event of Indian diaspora.

He said, “They will all become redundant in India, and India will make this jump because every Indian will be doing his transaction just by using his thumb in 30 seconds...” He was speaking at a session on ‘Startups and innovations which have social impact in India’ at the Youth Pravasi Bharatiya Divas.

He said whatever the biggest attempts of demonetisation and push for digital payment, only 2 to 2.5 per cent of Indians pay taxes, so India needs to move from a non-formal to a formal economy. “It is impossible for India to become a 10 trillion economy like this.... $2 trillion is a formal economy and another $1 trillion is informal black economy. It is not possible for India to grow. So you need convert the non-formal economy to a formal economy, that’s what the effort is,” he added. — PTI