With the increasing use of smartphones, India has the capacity to move to a purely cashless economy based on mobile wallets by 2020, according to entrepreneurs in the financial inclusion sector.
“India can go cashless and mobile by 2020,” said Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder, Paytm on Saturday, adding that India will leapfrog from plastic to digital money at a pace faster than any other country.
Addressing a session on Disruptive Power of Technology in Financial Inclusion at the Start-Up India initiative, he said the biggest myth is that Indians who are poor and without bank accounts want to keep their cash with themselves.
Echoing similar sentiments, Abhishek Sinha, CEO, Eko Financials, said the payments industry and financial inclusion efforts are set to take off over the next three to four years as the number of individuals with Aadhaar numbers and smartphones increases.
Kabir Kumar, Senior Financial Sector Specialist, CGAP’s Digital Finance Plus at the World Bank, also noted that India is one of the most exciting markets for financial services innovation.
“No other country has these pieces of technology. It is either very patchy or owned by a few companies in other countries,” he noted.