‘Cashless banking key to managing currency’

“Cashless banking is critical to reduce the cost of printing, managing and moving currency in the country,” said GP Ray, Deputy General Manager, State Bank of India.

Addressing the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore’s (IIMB) Digital Summit 2016, organised by IIMB’s Executive Post Graduate Programme (EPGP), at IIMB campus, Ray said: “Cashless banking will also reduce instances of black money, counterfeit currency and boost tax compliance.”

Observing that the biggest challenge was in changing the mindset of people, especially in the rural sector, he said while products were already available, the challenge lay in making customers use these products and facilities. ‘Financial literacy is essential to create awareness about the facilities and boost usage,” he explained.

Digital Summit attended by tech evangelists, start-ups and students saw speakers speaking on boosting brand value with analytics to engaging with customers in a mobile-first world, the summit features stimulating sessions by industry leaders.

“With the help of technology, with the right infrastructure to gather, analyse, visualise and make sense of the data we can solve issues not only at an organisational level, but also ones which are existent on a global scale as well as real societal problems. In doing so, we must not lose sight of the fact that it is vital to empower every single citizen of the world, where no one is left behind,” said Anil Bhansali, Managing Director, Microsoft India — R&D. “Technology has accelerated the pace of change. We need to ensure that the impact is felt by the society at large. All of us have the vision and the ability to make a difference. Technology can be an enabler and help us bring the change. All of us need to be part of that change. Make it inclusive and available to every citizen of the country and the world,” Bhansali added.

The Digital Summit was a coming together of technology and business leaders. Earlier the summit was inaugurated by Prof U Dinesh Kumar from the Decision Sciences and Information Systems area who is also the Chairperson, EPGP.

The keynote address was followed by a panel discussion on Frictionless Payments, moderated by Charan Singh, RBI Chair Professor, IIM-Bangalore.

Ashvin Vellody, Partner, KPMG, listed three trends that were converging to make friction payments and execution happen: online to offline model, mobility and Aadhaar, and scale of doing things. The business possibilities of these enablers are profound, he pointed out.

Ashootosh Chand, Partner and Leader – Digital, PwC, said although technology and government policies were in place, challenges remained as the amount of money invested was “small”. The other challenge, he said, stemmed from the resistance of people to change. He spoke about what will drive adoption of usage, how we can innovate, train and educate people, how government has to implement effective policies - making people understand and appreciate the advantage. All the panellists were of the opinion that the change can and would happen.

Ankur Dang, Director, Software Engineering, GE Digital, spoke on Smart Industries, digital transformation, and the forces shaping India’s digital transformation like software and analytics. “Industrial internet is the next big industrial revolution and there has been a fundamental change in the DNAs of industrial companies,” he added.

Balendu Shrivastava, Head of Marketing Science, Facebook India, gave an overview of how Facebook worked with companies to boost their brand value.

“Put people at the core of your marketing strategy, be creative, test, experiment, automate and sell. Advertising will gain more relevance with the right measures. Hence make it more scientific and measurable. Measure outcome, not output,” he said.

While Kishan Srinivas, Practice Manager, Cerner India, offered an overview of the benefits of digitalisation of healthcare, Ravindra Shet, Director, Samsung Electronics, focussed on wearable devices and their impact on users.

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