FinTech has the potential of becoming one of the major

“FinTech has the potential of becoming one of the major employment generators in the state over the next few years besides promoting ‘ease of living’ among citizens”: Tmt. Pooja Kulkarni IAS, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Guidance Tamil Nadu

Tmt. Kulkarni attended the Chennai Micro Experience of FinTech Festival India 2021-22

FFI is supported by Niti Aayog, six central ministries, Government of Tamil Nadu, Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu Limited (ELCOT) etc. and organised by Constellar Exhibitions

 

Attending the Chennai Micro Experience of FinTech Festival India 2021-22, Tmt. Pooja Kulkarni IAS, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Guidance Tamil Nadu, said, “We are focusing highly on FinTechs as we believe it has the potential of becoming one of the major employment generators in the state over the next few years besides promoting ‘ease of living’ among citizens.”

Talking about the potential of Tamil Nadu she further said, “Tamil Nadu has been a pioneer in the financial sector with Chennai being at the forefront of several financial innovations and initiatives. With four well-established pillars for the FinTech ecosystem - Domain Knowledge in Finance, Data Analytics & Information Technology, Infrastructure, and Diversified & Inclusive Markets, Tamil Nadu is poised to evolve into a Global FinTech hub. Right from creating a single-window channel to facilitate domestic and foreign investments, to promoting an enabling environment for FinTechs and startups to flourish in the state, we are committed to extend all possible support.”

FinTech Festival India is organised by Constellar Exhibitions (a subsidiary of TEMASEK and Singapore Press Holdings which organizes Singapore FinTech Festival) and supported by Niti Aayog and six central government ministries.

The daylong conference in Chennai was also attended by some well-known stalwarts such as Karan Mehta, Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer, Kissht, Himanshu Gupta, Chief Operating Officer, Kristal.AI, Irfan Mohammed, Chief Business Officer - Financial Services, CredAvenue, Sharan Nair, Chief Business Officer, CoinSwitch, Prabhu Rangarajan, Co-Founder, M2P Fintech and Anil Pinapala, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Vivifi India Finance among others.

Among the notable industry speakers who attended the conference, Srikanth Meenakshi, Co-Founder, PrimeInvestor.in said, "India has among the most advanced FinTech industry in the world. And this FinTech festival is an opportunity - both to celebrate the domestic ecosystem as well as to shape its future with dialogues between the pathbreakers in its various sub sectors. It's a privilege to be part of this event, to contribute and to learn."

“It was fascinating to moderate the session on Cryptocurrency and its impact on the Future of Indian Economy at FinTech Festival India – Chennai Micro Experience. Cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin has grown in popularity in India, with the volume of Indian rupees traded in cryptocurrency at an all-time high. I had interesting discussions on the views on Crypto as an asset class in 2021 and beyond – the opportunities, challenges, reliability, and security with Mr.Sharan Nair, CBO of CoinSwitch and Mr. Arjun Vijay, COO of Giotuss, two of the renowned experts in this area.” said, Mahesh Ramachandran, Partner & Fund Manager of Pontaq Cross Border Innovation Fund.

A white paper on ‘Chennai: A hub for Saas Startups’, published by FFI’s Knowledge Partner - Ernst & Young (EY), was also unveiled today in front of the august gathering. The white paper deep-dives into the evolving start-up ecosystem in Chennai and takes a detailed overview on how the city is fast emerging as a hub for SaaS based start-ups.

Fintech Festival India is the country’s largest FinTech confluence to be held till March 2022. It will witness participation from over 500 Indian and global leaders and 12,000+ delegates. FFI will see participation from Brazil, Israel, UK, Russia, Canada, Finland, Japan, Singapore among others.

The conferences are being supported by Government of India’s Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), Ministry of Small & Medium Enterprise (MSME), The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (Ministry of Commerce and Industry), Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Limited ( A Government of India Enterprise – Under Ministry of Information & Broadcasting) and Startup India (Department for promotion of Industry and Internal Trade & Invest India). It has also received support from the Government of Tamil Nadu, Government of Karnataka and Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu Limited (ELCOT).

Fintech Festival India is being conducted in physical and digital format through 10 Micro Experience Conferences in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Delhi, Guwahati, Chennai, Mumbai, Gift City (Ahmedabad) and Pune. The festival will end with a 3-day mega event in New Delhi from March 9 - 11, 2022.

The next Micro Experience will be held in Mumbai on 26th November 2021.

In addition to the government, FFI which aims to unleash the power of FinTech across the country, has also drawn interest from industry including Indian insurance behemoth Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) and World Trade Centre Mumbai among others.

NDB has the highest credit rating assigned to any multilateral bank

                             NDB has the highest credit rating assigned to any multilateral bank                                 established solely by emerging economies: Marcos Troyjo, President, NDB

·          Local presence of NDB in India would expand the scope of its engagement with Indian businesses as well as create opportunities for expanding the project pipeline for the NDB: Onkar Kanwar, Chair, BRICS Business Council

·          Enabling and accelerating the state's knowledge and innovation ecosystem is key to investment in state: Pooja Kulkarni, MD & CEO, Guidance

Mr Marcos Troyjo, President, NDB at the Plenary Session with BRICS Business Council National Chapter Chairs said earlier this week that the alignment of this year’s BRICS Business forum with NDB’s work underscores the potential we have for further collaborating with the BRICS Business Council. NDB has more than 70 projects in all member countries, and the project approval is nearly US 30 billion dollars. The bank supports strategic infrastructure projects addressing BRICS countries core development needs. NDB is also contributing to the achievement of sustainable development goals and sectors like transport, urban development, irrigation, clean energy, social infrastructure, and environmental efficiency are all within our scope, he added.

 

Mr Marcos Troyjo further stated, “The NDB enjoys today the highest credit rating assigned to any multilateral bank established solely by emerging economies. Meeting the sustainable development agenda 2030 necessitates large-scale & long-term investments by countries in physical, social & digital infrastructure and therefore, we map the contributions of each of our investments to fulfilling the commitments made by our member countries under the 2030 agenda.”

 

Mr Onkar Kanwar, Chair, BRICS Business Council India Chapter, said, “Sustainability is at the core of NDB’s operations as the bank completes its first five-year cycle. It has approved more than 70 projects worth nearly US 30 billion dollars across all BRICS countries. Green and clean energy has always been a key focus on NDB operations, and the bank has approved 15 clean energy projects in the last five years, many of which are focused on renewable energy. We also hope NDB will serve as a catalyst in other priority areas like infrastructure and agribusiness. India is currently in the process of setting up a Development Finance Institution, called National Bank for Financing Infrastructure & Development, which is primarily aimed at funding large infrastructure projects. Learnings from NDB’s own experience can be extremely useful in successful operations of the DFI being set up in India.”

 

“Over the years, the New Development Bank has also expanded its network by establishing regional offices in South Africa, Brazil and Russia. We understand that a regional office in India is also under works this year. We are eagerly looking forward to this development. We believe that a local presence of NDB in India would expand the scope of its engagement with Indian businesses as well as create opportunities for expanding the project pipeline for the NDB,” he added.

 

Mr Jackson Schneider, Chair, BRICS Business Council Brazil Chapter, said, “We have noticed an increase in the number of companies seeking ESG certification in Brazil and, according to Bank of America, in the first quarter of 2021 Brazil issued 79% of the total green bonds and sustainability-linked bonds raised in Latin America, which also demonstrates the engagement with this agenda. As a company, we recognize the urgency of the climate crisis and are fully committed to a more sustainable future. To do so, we have included ESG as one of the pillars in our strategic plan ‘Fit for Growth’, aligning business strategy with social responsibility and environmental practices, to achieve the aviation industry´s goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.”

 

Mr Sergey Katyrin, Chair, BRICS Business Council Russia Chapter, said, “For the BRICS countries, the development of ‘digital’ is one of the priorities, which is determined by national plans and strategies implemented over the past few years. We are all interested in building a digital economy, digital infrastructure, exporting our products and solutions, ensuring national security, digital sovereignty, which has recently acquired special emphasis. It is extremely important to develop a unified position in the field of cybersecurity and the protection of personal data of its citizens. Acceleration of the process of mutual recognition of electronic documents for entrepreneurs is what business is waiting for today. Even mutual recognition of an electronic digital signature on the scale of the BRICS countries will make a great effect in the medium term.”

           

Capt. Xu Lirong, Chair, BRICS Business Council China Chapter, said, “Adhering to the concept of ecological conservation and green low-carbon circular development, China has implemented a series of policy measures to optimize industrial structure, build a low-carbon energy system, develop green buildings and low-carbon transportation, and establish a national carbon emission permits trading market through technological and institutional innovation. All these efforts are made to ensure that it will achieve the targets of peak emission and carbon neutrality. We can use the BRICS Business Council as a platform to promote sustainable corporate development and business communities in the BRICS countries can strengthen joint technological research, accelerate energy conservation and emission reduction to grasp the market opportunities for new energy to achieve sustainable development of enterprises.”

 

Ms Busi Mabuza, Chair, BRICS Business Council South Africa Chapter, said, “South Africa is in a better position as far as supplies are concerned and the vaccine availability has improved markedly with our government joining hands with the private sector to make it widely accessible. This however is not the case for other parts of the continent. We welcome the $600 million pledge by governments of France, Germany and the US and the World Bank to support Aspen, one of our pharmaceutical companies, to produce the Johnson & Johnson vaccines for the rest of the continent.”

 

Speaking on driving investment in the state of Tamil Nadu, Ms Pooja Kulkarni, MD and CEO, Guidance Tamil Nadu, said, “As an agency that monitors and develops policy for investment opportunities, we welcome and look forward to handholding the investors to set up operations in Tamil Nadu, the second-largest economy in India with 8% of the National GDP. To evolve Tamil Nadu into the most preferred destination for investors, we are working towards enabling and accelerating the state’s knowledge and innovation ecosystem into India’s foremost hub for high-tech industries.”

 

She further added to creating a conducive environment for Industry and Research Institutions focusing on cutting-edge research across various industries. Additionally, Ms Kulkarni emphasized that priority should be given to deciding on incentives and subsidies to the EV and Electronics Hardware Manufacturing sectors.

 

To further strengthen the trade and investment relations within BRICS, the Department of Commerce, Government of India along with FICCI and supported by the BRICS Business Council, organised the 2nd BRICS Trade Fair, which is the largest platform for Indian companies to meet and network with counterpart businesses from Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa. The organizers have informed that 600+ companies from the BRICS Nations showcased their products and services at the expo. 18 Investment agencies & states/provinces showcased investment opportunities in their respective regions.

 

The BRICS Trade Fair 2021 witnessed the participation of over 5000 delegates, and the event had over 2500 Pre-fixed B2B meetings. The Trade Fair also saw over 8000 Virtual booth visits by the business delegates, which attributed to over 2000 business interactions. Also, the virtual exhibition platform witnessed over 3000 Business card exchanges and had representation from varied sectors from the BRICS member countries, with 610 exhibitors from the five countries.