Nandan Nilekani: The new decade will see shift in India’s digital economy from prepaid to postpaid

Nandan Nilekani, the Co-Founder of IT giant Infosys and Chief Architect of Aadhaar, at Founding Fuel’s online event said India’s digital economy will go from a prepaid to postpaid in the new decade, driving a huge cycle of consumption and growth. Founding Fuel, a learning platform for entrepreneurs, held an online session with Nilekani on how 2021 could alter India’s and the world’s digital transformation journey.

Nilekani said the western countries build the Internet private sector on advertising revenue, leading to the creation of Google and Facebook. However, India does not have a large advertising model with only about $2-3 billion being spent on digital ads a year.

He added, “Because we have this transaction economy and the ability to do high volume, zero cost, payment transactions using auto-debit, embedded lending, our future will be driven by a transaction led boom. Credit will go from given to a few people who abscond onto London, it will go to millions of small consumers and be democratised. That is the wave that is now going to start.”

Nilekani said right now is a “decisive moment” in the digitalisation of India, and all the investment in technology infrastructure and policy the country has done is now poised for takeoff.

Nilekani said, “Digital transformation of the world could be driven in some sense by India. India could be a great place for future software-as-a-service (SAAS) companies. India could be a digital transformation agent for the world and at this point, a much more trusted company where people will play by the rules.”

He said faster vaccination in the country backed by technology can get the economy back on track.