"Bulk of India's transactions are merchant payments and that has to become cashless and that cannot be done in a historical system because the card system is designed for top-end users," he said at an interaction at theCarneige Global Technology Summit 2016 here.
He was speaking on "Road to Cashless Economy: How Government, Regulation, Technology and Markets Come Together".
Earlier in the day, RBI Governor Urjit Patel had kept the short-term lending rate unchanged even as the central bank lowered GDP growth rate to 7.1 per cent and short term disruption in economic activities due to demonetisation.
Nilekani said cashless merchant payments is not the only way of solving the cash problem, but also is the way of reigniting the economic growth by removing frictions in the path ofpurchasing decisions.
Availability of infrastructure - smart phones, payment technologies, wallets, Unified Payment Interface etc - is another reason for rapid deployment of financial digital technology, Nilekani said.
"The country is going to see some exciting times ahead if the infrastructure like smart phones, payment technologies, wallets, Unified Payment Interface etc, fall together in right place," he said.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content