Sitharaman says, next 25 years will be driven by digital considerations

Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman has said that regulators and other entities should be well-advanced and ahead of the curve in understanding digitisation to ensure that there is no misuse of technologies. She emphasised the need to have firewall mechanisms in the context of digitisation. The Minister said, the decade from 2020 and upwards will be infused with digital methods. Ms Sitharaman was speaking at the event to flag off Iconic Day celebrations of the Corporate Affairs Ministry as part of the 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav' on Tuesday in New Delhi. She said, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) should be ahead of the curve in the context of digitisation to ensure fair and accountable practices as well as there is no misuse of technologies. She said compliance burden for two lakh small companies reduced during pandemic. 

Ms Sitharaman said the effective use of digital governance and tech-enabled solutions in facilitating and regulating businesses is the way forward, but also cautioned regulators about the threats from hackers suggesting that they should have domain experts to protect their digital properties from unscrupulous elements. Sitharaman said the next 25 years -- which the government is celebrating as ‘Amrit Kaal’ when India will attain 100 years of Independence -- will be driven by digital considerations because that has now become a “good” habit making lives of people easy in terms of “fair, accountable and transparent” practices. 
Corporate Affairs Secretary Rajesh Verma said, the Ministry will be coming out with various tools, including for compliance management and emphasised its focus on technology-driven platforms to facilitate ease of doing business. Verma said, various measures have been taken in the last eight years to ease the compliance burden. At the event, the National CSR Exchange Portal was launched. Among others, a commemorative postal stamp on investor awareness was released and a special window for those 75 years and above with respect to claims was launched by Investor Education Protection Fund Authority.