Increase in cashless transactions and impetus to digital infrastructure by the Centre are steps in right direction, Union Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal has said.

Addressing the Madras Management Association Annual Convention 2017 themed ‘India 2017 – Winning in the New Age’, Meghwal said, “To make India an economic power, you need to meet cash to GDP ratio.”

‘Fastest growing’

In most of the developed countries, cash to GDP ratio is 4 per cent, whereas in India, it is 12 per cent. “We need to bridge this gap so that the country can meet the global parameters,” he added.

India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, with its consuming class set to increase from 27 million to 89 million by 2019. Toshan Tamhane, Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company, said, “This gives a huge opportunity for companies and enterprises.”

Mobile internet, cloud and digital payment platforms could be leveraged for this purpose. “Close to 100 million people use mobile for accessing internet and close to 2 million small and medium scale enterprises use cloud. With the advent of latest technologies, this figure will continue to increase. We should make use of that,” he added.

Women participation

Tamhane said, “Improving women participation in the workforce is important for development.”

Currently, women contribute only 17 per cent to India’s GDP unlike its Chinese and western counterpart where the contribution is close to 40 per cent. If we can increase women participation to 25 per cent, another 0.7 trillion can be added to the GDP.

To bring uniform development and employment opportunity, there is need for demographic based boost. This can be provided by construction, manufacturing and services industry that can provide 115 million employment opportunities, Tamhane said.

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