Indian fintech's success an example of popular support for reforms: Modi

India got record amount of foreign investments last year during the coronavirus pandemic, says Prime Minister in Hyderabad.

Indian financial technology (fintech) comprises 40 per cent of the world’s digital transactions, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday as he cited the industry as an example of people supporting economic reforms done honestly and with willpower.

Addressing a meeting by the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad, he said even during global supply disruptions due to Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine, India became the biggest growth centre in the world by getting record foreign direct investment (FDI).

Later in the day, he dedicated to the nation by laying the foundation stone of 11 projects worth over Rs 31,530 crore in Tamil Nadu, including the 262-kilometre-long Bengaluru-Chennai Expressway to be built at a cost of over Rs 14,870 crore.

“After 2014, we are seeing political willpower and continuous reforms. We have shown that with honesty and willpower, the reform process is taken ahead. People’s support will come,” Modi said, taking fintech as an example.

“In a nation where banking was considered a privilege, fintech changed the lives of the common man. Where once to create trust in banks you had to take so much effort, now the world’s 40 per cent digital transaction is happening there.”

According to a recent report by payment solutions provider ACI Worldwide, India made 48.6 billion real-time payments through 2021, ahead of China at No. 2. The rise was cited due to an increase in Unified Payments Interface and quick response code-based merchant payments, along with a boost in cashless payments.

Modi spoke about India’s success in health care during the pandemic. He said the country’s health sector was considered unable to respond to any big challenge.

“But the effects of reforms in the health sector we realised during the biggest pandemic in the last 100 years,” he added, citing several examples, including Covid vaccination.

India has so far supplied 1.9 billion doses of vaccines domestically and sold its vaccines to over 100 countries, he said.

Other examples of the health success stories he cited included the rise in personal protective equipment manufacturing kit makers from near zero when the pandemic struck to creation of a network of over 1,100 new manufacturers in a short span of time. Modi said the number of medical colleges also increased from 380 before 2014 to over 600 now.

“During the pandemic, the world saw India’s potential. Global supply chain disruption happened during that time and then the war compounded it. But India is a big centre of growth in the midst of this,” he said, adding that the country got the highest FDI last year.

According to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, India reported its highest FDI inflow to the tune of $83.57 billion for 2021-22. This was $1.6 billion higher than the previous fiscal year.

He added that India is extending its support to Sri Lanka during the current crisis through giving financial aid, fuel, food, medicine, and other essentials.