In his address as the keynote guest at the Retail Leadership Summit – 2022 organized by Retailers Association of India (RAI) in Mumbai, Nilekani said that the Indian retail sector has benefited immensely from the rapid growth of the the country’s digital economy over the past decade.
Although the digital payment system was launched at the beginning of the last decade, it gained prominence after demonetization in November 2016, he said. The Aadhaar number played a major role in the development of the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) payment application, UPI (Unique Payment Interface). Every bank customer has been verified through the KYC process based on the Aadhaar number. As a result, the government can now easily transfer grants and provide financial assistance to millions of people in real time through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), he added.
The Indian government’s open platform for e-commerce initiative, the Open Network Digital Commerce (ONDC), will give a new horizon to the retail sector, says Nandan Nilekani, one of the top technocrats Indians and chairman and co-founder of the large computer company Infosys. . Any businessman could join and offer his services under the ONDC platform.
Thanks to the KYC of bank customers and the linking of bank accounts with Aadhaar, customers today can easily make payments through UPI. “The success of mobile-based digital payments can be measured by the majority of retailers and merchants accepting QR code payments through UPI, Paytm, Google Pay, PhonePe, etc. Retailers are getting the boost from the rapid pace of digital payments and the country is moving towards the digital economy,” Nilekani said.
According to him, the face of the credit system will also change as digital credit emerges rapidly. KYC verified retailers and customers can get credit instantly. “Retailers can easily take out loans from banks and financial institutions. Millions of customers take digital credit and buy under the concept of Buy Now-Pay Later. Of course, the retail sector benefits from this increase in consumer spending.
Anil Agarwal, Additional Secretary, Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Government of India, told the summit that the government is planning to launch a pilot project of ONDC. He said there are huge opportunities for the retail sector today as technological changes occur. In an omnichannel world, retailers must decide their business strategy with customer expectations and convenience in mind.
Fibre2Fashion (KUL) News Desk
