Ira Singh 
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday urged companies to innovate solutions that address emerging threats like digital arrests, cyber frauds, and deepfakes. Speaking at the Digital Payments Awards 2025 in New Delhi, she warned that the growing menace of fly-by-night operators and cybercriminals is putting consumers at risk, and called for fintech firms to proactively develop safety tools. “We need a set of fintech companies which are constantly working to give solutions for the newer challenges which are arising,” she said.
Highlighting the rapid growth trajectory of India’s fintech ecosystem,the Finance Minister projected the market to surpass $400 billion by 2028-29, growing annually at over 30%. Sitharaman said India already accounts for nearly half of all global real-time digital transactions and emphasized that the best chapters of the Indian fintech revolution are yet to be written. With an adoption rate of 87%well above the global average of 67% she noted that India’s digital payment ecosystem is flourishing, supported by strong innovations and user centric solutions.
Calling for inclusive growth, Sitharaman urged fintech players to expand into rural and underserved regions. She highlighted India’s rapid achievement of 80% financial inclusion in just six years—an outcome made possible through the Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and praised in a recent World Bank report. “This feat would have otherwise taken nearly 50 years,” she said. She encouraged integration of regional languages, improved cybersecurity frameworks, and customer service enhancements to ensure equitable access across Bharat.
During the awards ceremony, Sitharaman also underscored India’s potential to export its digital financial innovations as global public goods. Indian fintech models, she said, can serve both emerging and developed economies, opening up new international markets. Unified Payments Interface (UPI)-based international merchant payments are already accepted in seven countries including France, UAE, Singapore, and Mauritius. “We have the talent, we have the market scale, and we have the proven solutions,” she asserted, urging fintech firms to “Innovate, Include, and Inspire.”
(Business Correspondent)
