Innovation has got India to where it is today: NPCI’s Dilip Asbe

Innovation, especially in the fintech sector, will be the key driver to take India to exponential growth, said Dilip Asbe, Managing Director and CEO, NPCI.

"Innovation has got India to where it is today, and only innovation can take us to the next exponential growth. So, it must be preserved at any cost," he spoke at TechSparks 2024 in Mumbai.

In a conversation with YourStory Founder and CEO Shradha Sharma, Asbe emphasised that there are pathways within the current financial structure that can be leveraged to facilitate innovation and address challenges.

“I would use the term 'responsible innovation'. There's a regulatory sandbox, fintech division of the RBI— there's a channel which has been opened up for innovation," Asbe said.

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He also commended startups for launching innovative products every 3-6 months to fuel fintech growth.

“Recently, they introduced a new payment protocol [for] offline payments, and various cohorts happened [such as] with frictionless credit," Asbe said, noting that there are many channels available to fuel innovation.

His response came in the light of many fintechs fearing regulatory hurdles in light of the troubles at Paytm. Asbe emphasised that despite complications, it's the founder's resilience that matters during challenging times.

“Every company, every founder goes through certain ups and downs but I think the true capability and the grit in the founders...I really admire many of them and have a huge learning from them. I'm sure that every founder deals with the challenges appropriately and comes back to life, and I'm sure a similar thing will happen with Vijay [Shekhar Sharma of Paytm] as well,” he added.