Digital Tech Sectors Hold Great Potential For ASEAN- India Cooperation: MoS Chandrasekhar

India's rapid digitalisation across sectors holds great potential for its partnership with ASEAN countries, said the Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Monday.

Addressing the ASEAN-India Business Summit 2023, he said, “Digital technologies have been key drivers of economic development in the ASEAN region, especially in sectors such as e-commerce, online media and financial services. 

Chandrasekhar added that Indian IT companies have played an integral part in the digital transformation journey of Malaysia and other ASEAN countries.

Reflecting on the scope for further cooperation between India and the regional bloc, the minister said, “After the recent announcement of the real-time payments linkage system between India and Singapore, India is working with Malaysia and other ASEAN countries to operationalise it for more countries in the region.”

The Summit is being held as part of the ASEAN-India year of friendship to commemorate more than three-decade-long engagement between India and the 10-member bloc in Kuala Lumpur.

The minister reflected on the rapid advancements that India has made with respect to digitalisation and said the changes have taken place due to the Narendra Modi government’s focus on expanding affordable digital infrastructures, tech advancement, rapidly growing startup ecosystem and open technologies.

Chandrasekhar spoke about the investments made by the Indian government in developing various digital public Infrastructures that have brought in transformation in various segments of the Indian economy and society.

Speaking about the catalysing impact of UPI in developing India’s Fintech ecosystem, he said, “India’s Unified Payments Interface with over 350 banks and 260 million users has transformed the way payments are made in India and over 8 million transactions are made every month through this platform.”

In addition to UPI, he spoke about other digital public infrastructure created by the Indian government such as Aadhaar, Cowin, GeM which collectively under the aegis of the India Stack have streamlined and reformed government and governance and promoted economic inclusion.