Author: Shereen Bhan

Transition to green energy gaining momentum in India, says Hardeep Singh Puri

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, said India is one of the largest markets for crude oil even as the transition towards green energy is picking up pace. In an interaction with CNBC-TV18, Puri said “(India) is a place for energy, where things are happening.”

Puri said India has emerged as a pivotal player in the global energy landscape, with its expanding exploration and production activities and a rapidly accelerating shift towards green energy solutions.

He also added that the country’s commitment to transitioning to green energy has gained significant traction. Puri indicated that this momentum has attracted a plethora of international stakeholders keen on participating in India’s energy evolution.

Bharat Petroleum’s chairman G Krishnakumar said on Monday that the company plans to invest $18.16 billion over five years to grow its oil business and expand its renewable energy portfolio as it aims for a 2040 net zero goal. During its 46th Annual General Meeting, Reliance Industries also made a similar commitment by stating that the conglomerate is progressing well to deploy Rs 75,000 crore to build a new energy manufacturing ecosystem. “This will enable us to accelerate giga-scale production for round-the-clock power and for large-scale Green Hydrogen production for green chemicals manufacturing, as well as for green mobility,” Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of RIL, had said.

Puri highlighted the substantial involvement in India of some of the world’s largest exploration and production companies. These collaborations underscore India’s growing prominence in the green energy domain. The minister expressed optimism about the progress of the green hydrogen story in the country, indicating that the sector is making noteworthy advancements.

Discussing specific initiatives, Puri said the Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) is poised to contribute significantly to the green energy transition. “Out of the 11 refineries under IOCL, two are slated to produce green hydrogen,” Puri said, adding that he wants to see this number rise, with the inclusion of additional refineries from IOCL as well as other key players like BPCL.

Puri also shed light on the influx of international investments in India’s green hydrogen sector. “A single company has invested a staggering $32 billion, setting up plants along the Indian coastline,” Puri said, noting that this company has already secured contracts to supply green ammonia to Germany and Singapore, showcasing India’s potential to become a global green energy exporter.

As Puri summed up, “This situation has the potential for dramatic transformation.” With India’s escalating involvement in green energy initiatives, its attractiveness to international investors, and the commitment of major energy corporations, the nation is undoubtedly making significant strides toward a greener and more sustainable energy future.

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Adobe CEO bets big on generative AI, to offer ‘freemium’ model to grow its userbase

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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How many of you know that the ubiquitous PDF was created by Adobe? Now, the company, which since its inception more than four decades ago, has grown into a household name for creativity and productivity through its host of offerings and aims to have a similar impact on the rapidly evolving generative AI space. However, unlike its other subscription-based products, Adobe will not immediately monetise its generational AI offerings, instead opting for a “freemium model” as the company will first focus on getting people on board.

In an exclusive interview with CNBC-TV18 on the sidelines of the B20 Summit India 2023 — the official G20 platform for communication with the world’s business community — Shantanu Narayen, Adobe’s Global CEO, said his company is very excited about the opportunities generative AI offers the creative community by cutting out mundane tasks and allowing creators to focus on the output. If all goes according to plan, Narayen hopes Adobe will become synonymous with generative AI for creativity as it has for photo/video editing, productivity, etc.

“I’ve been in this business for a long time. I really haven’t seen the kind of progress in any other field like I’m seeing in AI,” Narayen said.

Adobe has its own creative generative AI suite called Firefly, which is designed to help users create, modify and optimise billions of pieces of content with greater speed and ease.

“Whether you’re a student or one of these large companies, you’re doing content automation, content production content, localisation, content, personalisation, and so I think the production of a lot of these mundane tasks is going to change (with generative AI),” Narayen said.

“I think creative is going to be both at the front end of that process — allow that creative expression to really explode — and at the back end of that process, which is the automation and production, and distribution and personalisation, to really happen,” he explained.

Narayen said Firefly has garnered a lot of interest in India, and that it presents a tremendous opportunity for the company to capitalise on and grow.

“The traffic for Firefly in India is tremendous. And I think it just represents the innate interest in AI. So, from a business opportunity, we think it’s great, it’s incredibly exciting,” he added.

When asked about how long it will take for generative AI to pay dividends, given how much companies, including Adobe are investing in it, Narayen said the focus for them is currently getting people to experience their product first, and then opt for a paid service — a “freemium” model in which users have a limited number of interactions with the product per day.

“We’ve always asked how do we get more people to our platform. And it’s not just about the creative professionals and the top of the pyramid. It’s the halo effect of that with communicators, and then with consumers,” Narayen said, pointing to the ubiquity of PDF as a file format. While Adobe’s own, paid applications allow you to interact with features that no other application can, there is no dearth of PDF readers that help with basic tasks.

“We will have a freemium model. So you can come in, you can try it out, you can perhaps use a certain number of generations. So I think the value for (us) lies both in terms of enabling more people on the platform as well as retention — credit backs, (which) is the ability for people to say, ‘As I want to use more and more generations, I’m going to pay for it. So I think we have a multi-faceted approach to monetisation. But right now, the excitement is about getting people to the platform,” Narayen added.

India’s potential

Narayen expressed his excitement about the country’s “incredible” talent pool.

“We have been extremely excited always about the incredible talent that exists in this country. And so when I (would) come here, it was always about talent, and how we attract and retain talent,” Narayen said.

He pointed out two pivotal shifts in the economy that have intensified opportunities for Adobe. The first is the prospect of enabling businesses’ digital transformation. Adobe’s solutions cater to key decision-makers such as Chief Revenue Officers, Chief Digital Officers, and Chief Marketing Officers, across diverse sectors like aviation, financial services, and retail. The second shift lies in Adobe’s collaboration with the burgeoning startup ecosystem in India, enabling solutions built on top of Adobe’s technology platforms.

“I think (it’s) the way they are using technology to engage with customers, so the business opportunity associated with Adobe in India has also exploded. So it’s not just about what we can develop here, but also about selling,” he said.

India is a potential $100 billion market for Adobe.

Narayen said Adobe sees India as a $100 billion addressable market opportunity.

“The business in India today is not where we want it to be, but the growth is tremendous and so, when we think about the growth opportunity, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be in the billions of dollars over time. I mean, when you look at the economy, when you look at the businesses, for all of these Indian companies, the world is their oyster. We have a multibillion-dollar digital marketing business. So there’s no reason why India shouldn’t be one of the major regions for that,” Narayen said.

Technology an agent for societal change

Narayen said technology, which has exploded in India over the past few years, can catalyse societal change — from creating digital infrastructure to delivery of service to public.

“The amazing advancements in the technology done to spur the economy — everything from investment in payment schemes to digital infrastructure to mobile devices — that technology is in many ways such an enabler for societal improvement. I have been struck by the emphasis on the importance of technology (in the B20 panel discussions),” Narayen added.

As India positions itself as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, Adobe envisions a future where technology and AI play pivotal roles in driving both individual creativity and business growth.

Catch all updates from from the B20 India Summit here.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Indian Medical Association raises concerns over NMC’s new rules to prescribe generic drugs

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has raised concerns over the National Medical Commission’s (NMC) new rules that have made it mandatory for doctors to prescribe generic drugs. The IMA emphasised that quality control of generic drugs is weak in India and could be detrimental to a patient’s health. 

The NMC’s new rules will reduce healthcare cases significantly by around 30 to 80 percent, according to the government.

Sharad Kumar Agarwal, National President, IMA told CNBC-TV18 that patients’ life should not be compromised in order to reduce costs.

Under the new rules, the NMC requires doctors to prescribe generic drugs, or else they will be penalised. According to its notification, doctor’s licences will be suspended in case of repeated violations of the directives.

Agarwal said, “When the NMC is saying that doctors should only prescribe the generic medicine, they should give the surety that the quality of generic medicine should be at par with the branded medicine. They should ensure that the bioavailability of the medicine in the blood should be at par with the branded medicine.”

Agarwal pointed out that the NMC’s new rules call for doctors to write only the generic term or component instead of the medicine’s name along with the brand name.

“They are giving that right to a shopkeeper who probably doesn’t understand pharmacology because all the chemist shops don’t have 24×7 pharmacists. So this is illogical. As per the rule in India, all the medicines have to be sold on the legitimate prescription of a registered medical practitioner (RMP),” Agarwal added. 

Agarwal questioned the government on the need for the production of branded drugs if NMC is prohibiting the RMPs from selling anything other than generic medications. The government has other means to reduce the MRPs of medicines instead of asking the RMPs to sell only generic drugs, Agarwal told CNBC-TV18.

The execution of the NMC’s rules should have been discussed with the IMA, Agarwal stated. IMA has not received a reply from the government on the letter that it had sent to the government two days ago.

“It (NMC’s new rules) will be disastrous for the country, for the healthcare system of the country and that is why we are opposing and recommending and requesting the government to please have a look at that,” IMA National President.

The IMA is ready to have a discussion with the government as these rules are disastrous for the country, according to Agarwal.

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Women in Indian Armed Forces share their experiences, challenges

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Women in the Indian armed forces are making their mark now more than ever. The achievements of women in the armed forces achieve are not without challenges. In a discussion with Shereen Bhan of CNBC-TV18 at News18’s Rising India-She Shakti conclave, some women officers explain what they went through to reach they have.

Former Navy Vice Admiral Punita Arora, who was the first Woman Lieutenant General, joined the armed forces in 1968 and has been a part of all the three forces. Arora was amongst the first ones to be commissioned on permanent basis. She shared the challenges that she faced after being commissioned in the forces and said, “The main challenges came from three quarters — first one was my colleagues, second challenge came from my seniors in my own unit and the third challenge was from the organisation itself. The challenges were there because armed forces was mainly a male centric organisation.”

She also spoke that her colleagues thought that she would make excuses in order to avoid work. “In the organisation, there were no rules and regulations meant for the lady officers, everything was for male officers. So as a result, at every level wherever I got posted, I had to convince everybody that I am also going to work. I had to work double to convince them that a lady officer can also perform and perform well,” Arora added.

Squadron Leader Sindhu Reddy who led the Indian contingent at the Bastille Day Parade last month highlighted that salute to Prime Minister Narendra Modi topped her list of achievements. Reddy said, “Carrying the might of the entire force that was behind me and leading my contingent gave me all the strength… So when you have the support of the contingent and you have your own strength, then nothing is unbeatable.”

Dr. Seema Rao recalled her time as a combat trainer that challenged her, “Every day was a challenge but I would hone up my skills and I would see that I would give my best. At the end of the day when I would get the respect of those male commandos, it was very satisfying to me because for me this was a selfless service to the country. So it was a wonderful journey and I would never forget the respect that I earned, the satisfaction that I gained out of training them in close quarter battle.”

Colonel Sofiya Qureshi who had been a part of UN Peacekeeping Force urged children aspiring to join Armed Forces to put nation above all and provide selfless service. Colonel Sofiya said, “I would like to give few rules for the kids… be bold, brave and dynamic, be disciplined, courageous, have your own legacy, create your own destiny, manage time and always think about country first.”

During the event, Sonal V. Misra, Inspector General, CRPF told women who wish to join the forces, not to hold themselves back. The organisation is accepting women with open arms, according to Misra who said, “Women at the right decision making level can be the catalyst for you. So don’t hold yourself back that is my message to the young generation.”

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PwC CEO Dialogues | ‘India’s manufacturing talent poor, need more R&D investment to compete with China’

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Indian market is very affordable and has aspirational middle class, however, manufacturing talent is very poor in the country, said B Thiagarajan, Managing Director of Blue Star Ltd.

Speaking at the CNBC-TV18 CEO Dialogues, Thiagarajan mentioned that transformation in India’s manufacturing India is very exciting as he pointed out that India still imports machinery from Korea, Japan and China.

“PLI (Production Linked Incentive) scheme has helped the air conditioner industry in India. Companies will dilute the PLI scheme into reducing pricing,” Thiagarajan said.

Thiagarajan expects the AC manufacturing industry production capacity to double in the next 18 months. Although, the AC manufacturing industry encounters many environment related issues ­— power consumption, ozone depletion and global warming.

Thiagarajan also pointed out that the industry with low penetration levels in India was dependent on huge amount of imports and said, “We all pampered sales and marketing guys with the higher salaries, manufacturing guys were not paid at all so we are now trying to poach from here and there and manage the talent that is not there. They all will know manufacturing engineering as a discipline is not there. We all import machinery from Korea, Japan, China, and manage, that ecosystem has not developed.”

Thiagarajan is excited with the transformation taking place in the Indian manufacturing industry. He said, “But still, the Indian spirit is very high, the transformation that is taking place is exciting. So at last we have arrived and therefore it is exciting times.”

PLI is not production linked incentive, it is a sales linked incentive; one will have to show the incremental sales, Thiagarajan said. “So what the companies are going to do is dilute this PLI in the pricing. So the product is going to become affordable, which is good news for the consumer. It is good news for the company because you have created an infrastructure so that scheme is helping,” he further said.

Contrarily, Atul Lall, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Dixon Technologies (India) Pvt. Ltd said that India must review its stance and be ready to partner with Chinese companies as its market is facing a slowdown.

Lall said, “In the electronics manufacturing industry growth is going to be through the partnership route. You have to tie-up with best companies globally. China is going through a slowdown and they are looking at opportunities everywhere else and that is where we should open up, take advantage by partnering with them and bring the technology into India. So I would strongly recommend reviewing our position and partner with Chinese companies.”

Sunjay Kapur, Chairman, Sona Comstar, pointed out that partnerships should be made so that technology can be learnt by the companies. Sona Comstar has been continuously investing in R&D as he reckons that private sector should actively invest in technology, said Kapur.

Kapur said, “At Sona Comstar we spend 3.5 percent of our revenue on R&D. We like to play in maybe 4 or 5 products but we want to do them really well. 75-80 percent of our business is outside of India in terms of exports. So we are continuously investing in R&D.”

According to Kapur, the only way a company can make money is by pricing the a product better than its competitor. He said “The only way you can do that is if your product is actually better than your competitor and to achieve that you need to invest in R&D and innovation.”

Kapur stressed on the need for the Indian auto components industry to step into global market and  added, “That is really the mindset that companies in India and the auto components space need to have to go global. The opportunity to create a manufacturing hub for the world exists today in the auto component industry. So we need to leverage that opportunity and we can only leverage that by investing in R&D.”

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PwC CEO Dialogues | Digital skilling a challenge, but talent is hungry, says Luminous CEO Preeti Bajaj

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Digital skilling is of utmost importance in the context of making India a global manufacturing powerhouse, but it remains a challenge in small-town India, said Preeti Bajaj, CEO and Managing Director of Luminous Power Technologies.

Speaking at the CNBC-TV18 CEO Dialogues panel discussion, Bajaj acknowledged the challenge but said it is offset by the hunger of the talent pool for leadership and knowledge, especially in the digital realm.

“We invest a lot in digital skilling, and that is really about being relentless in grabbing that data culture and driving it. I can tell you that it is a whole different thing in India to do it in small towns but the great news is Indian talent is hungry, they want to lead and they want to learn,” Bajaj said, adding that she called it the “L cubed” philosophy. “You have to lead the digital DNA change, you have to lab it — which means you have to allow your leaders to experiment and lab it — and then you have to live it, which means you have to have the courage to experiment, implement and then change your processes and retrain your entire line.”

On the current state of the manufacturing industry, Preeti Bajaj said, “I see the Indian manufacturing ecosystem very positively. We are witnessing remarkable growth and innovation, fueled by the indomitable spirit of the Indian workforce.”

Bajaj also stressed the importance of employee safety, sustainability, and digital skilling. She said businesses need to put employee safety and sustainability at the forefront of their operations. She said, “In the wake of recent global events, safety has become an even more critical aspect of manufacturing operations. Companies should invest in state-of-the-art safety measures to ensure a secure working environment for all employees.”

She also stressed the significance of sustainable practices, emphasising that the manufacturing sector must adapt to eco-friendly approaches to minimize its impact on the environment.

Discussing the ongoing technological revolution, Bajaj noted that the manufacturing industry is witnessing a digital transformation, and India is no exception. “At Luminous, we invest significantly in digital skilling for our employees,” she revealed. “Upskilling and reskilling are crucial to keep up with rapidly evolving technologies and maintain a competitive edge in the global market.”

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YoungTurksAt21 | Meet Tome—touted the generative AI killer of Microsoft PowerPoint & Google Slides

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Frustrating attempts at manually sifting through templates, text boxes and image sizes in Microsoft PowerPoint or Google Slides, struggling to add pointers on the smartphone while rushing to a meeting…What if you could do it all with just a prompt?

To enable storytelling outside the “walled gardens of Microsoft and Google”, two former product leads at Facebook and Instagram developed Tome—an artificial intelligence-driven storytelling platform. It holds the record for the fastest productivity tool to reach a million users. Faster than Dropbox, Zoom and Slack.

The brainchild of Henri Liriani and Keith Peiris, Tome can generate everything from children’s bedtime stories and startup pitch decks to 3D prototypes. The genesis of the idea was born when Peiris was building the augmented reality camera feature for Instagram.

“I was thinking, we have made it really easy to share your face, what you are eating for lunch and what you are doing with your family on the weekend, but if you want to share something in your head, like an idea or a concept, you have to use a document like a PowerPoint,” Peiris told CNBC-TV18 in Young Turks “Voices of the Valley” special.

“These tools came in the 1980s that were designed to physically print a document or display using an overhead projector,” he said.

Liriani and Peiris tinkered with Tome for two years until OpenAI’s ChatGPT opened new frontiers and the founders were quick to integrate it in 2022, with the large language model (LLM) enabling the startup to work ‘higher up in the idea creation process’.

“You show up to our product with a kernel of an idea and we help you build out the narrative, help you with research, sharpen what you have, so that your artifact is persuasive and engaging,” said Peiris.

“We aren’t building AI slides. We are building a product that through a single prompt can build a presentation, website, a blog and more…” he added.

With OpenAI or StabilityAI-like Generative AI layers, Tome allows users to type a prompt into the command bar and generates a presentation, outline, or story—complete with text and images. Further prompts can be used to add new pages with more context.

The platform uses AI to rewrite text with the right tone and length, change image styles, and edit image output to bring the story to life, allowing live embeds, interactive product mocks, 3D prototypes, data and web pages more directly onto your page.

After testing the product, one of the startup’s investors remarked, “Remember the first time you went from doing freehand math to using a calculator? It feels like that level of magic. Now, the limitations of Tome are only bound by a creator’s imagination.”

LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman (also Partner at Greylock VC) is an investor and so is former Google CEO Eric Schmidt who participated in the more recent $43 million Series B fundraise, which was led by Lightspeed, reportedly at a valuation of $300 million. Since its inception, Tome has raised more than $80 million.

After launching in September 2022, Tome had garnered six million subscribers by the time of the Lightspeed-led fundraise. While its user base is accelerating fast, is there a risk of incumbents Microsoft (investor in OpenAI) and Google (Bard, Anthropic…) catching up with Generative AI additions as co-pilots to their product offerings? Several design unicorns like Canva and Coda are experimenting with AI too.

“What we are seeing is a surface-level response. They are playing in the last mile of documents and presentations. We are moving to a higher level of idea generation process,” defends Peiris.

“We are moving to a world where you can show up on Tome with an idea for a pitch deck or a memo. We ask you questions, ingest data from your enterprise or hard drive, shape your idea and crystallise it to the point where we are actually helping you structure thought rather than helping you move images or text around in a box,” he added.

Defending the thesis, Lightspeed partner Dev Khare said, “The answer lies in history. Did Electronic Arts win mobile games? No, Zynga did. Did some taxi company win the mobile war? No. Uber did. Ola in India. Every new platform has brought about a shift in the leaders in that category. That’s the opportunity with Tome.”

Khare further said, “Who is going to be idea generation leader in this new world? Who knows? But, it is certainly not the leaders of 10 years ago, even though they are making defensive moves with co-pilots. But, it is going to be a new generation. That’s what history shows us.”

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CoWIN Data Breach | Ashwini Vaishnaw says root cause of leak has been identified — more details soon

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Union Minister for Electronics and Technology (MeitY) Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday, June 23, told CNBC-TV18 that the government has determined the root cause of the recent, alleged CoWIN database breach in which personal and sensitive information of potentially millions of registered users was leaked on a Telegram channel.

The country’s cybersecurity watchdog, the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), has been tasked with probing the alleged breach.

Without divulging any specific details, Vaishnaw said, “The ongoing investigation has actually figured out the root cause behind the incident, and the investigators will come out and make further announcements once the probe is over.”

Earlier this month, users on social media shared screenshots of the possible security breach of CoWIN vaccination data, with a Telegram bot allegedly exposing personal details based on registered mobile numbers. CNBC-TV18 even joined the Telegram channel, but the bot had been taken down by then. Shortly after, the channel too was shut down.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State, MeitY, said there was no breach detected and that the data being shared was previously stolen, although he didn’t specify when the data was stolen and its specifics. Chandrasekhar took to Twitter to assure users that the CoWIN database is secure and that the latest incident was being investigated by CERT-In.

The following week, the Union Health Ministry said it would file an FIR in this regard, as officials suspect the leak could be from other databases “beyond the portal.”

“We will file a case with the Cyber Crime cell either today or in a day or two. However, there has been no breach in CoWIN data. But there could have been some attempt elsewhere. Cybercrime will look into it. Investigations by CERT-in are on, too,” an official said to The Hindu Business Line.

The officials had said the CoWIN portal does not store precise dates of birth for vaccine beneficiaries as it only collects the year of birth. Similarly, CoWIN does not collect addresses or other details, they added.

Also read: CoWIN Data Leak | Here are the biggest breaches in India’s history

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

India Ideas Summit: US-India will ‘seize the moment as world stands at inflection point,’ says deputy NSA

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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In 2022, India-US bilateral trade crossed the $191-billion mark — which is twice the figure in 2014. “Our world stands at an inflection point, the US and India are choosing to work together to seize that moment to create a more prosperous, secure and healthy world,” said US Deputy National Security Advisor (NSA) Jonathan Finer at the US-India Business Council India Ideas Summit.

Finer highlighted the significance of India-US partnership in the global context in various spheres such as trade, defence, technology, higher education and clean energy.

India and US have regular discussions on developments across the globe and strategise to “cooperate through joint defence exercises, information sharing, logistics networks and interoperable communication systems.”

“Our two countries consult regularly to assess regional developments and put in place an architecture to cooperate more closely through joint exercises, information sharing, logistics networks and interoperable communication systems,” Finer said about the defence partnership between India and the US.

Areas of focus

Finer added that the US aims to strengthen and collaborate in defence development and production, hence enhancing its major defence partner India’s military strength. “We continue to strengthen India’s status as major defence partner through defence industrial cooperation that co-develops and co-produces important military capabilities for both of our countries,” he said.

The two countries are also working together on clean energy goals as they look forward to decarbonise their economies and focus on deploying clean energy, which is reflected in 2030 climate action and clean energy targets.

“Together, we are pushing each other to develop and deploy innovative solutions that will strengthen climate security, expand peaceful uses of civil nuclear energy and unlock climate finance solutions to mobilise the information, the technologies and the resources we need to create the clean energy economy of the future,” Finer added.

ALSO READ: US pushing India to seal big armed drone deal for PM Modi visit: Sources

He said the US is welcoming new education partnership and taking steps to support the growing demand for travel between the two countries. US visas were issued to a “record” 1.25 lakh Indian students, soon to become the largest student community in the North American country. This was done through an initiative called Mission India.

“(We are looking forward to) a future where our universities are exchanging more students in science and engineering and are doing cutting edge research together in the areas that will define the world economy,” the US deputy NSA said.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Digital Rupee can be customised, have expiry date, suggests banker Zarin Daruwala

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Zarin Daruwala, cluster CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of India & South Asia, Standard Chartered Bank, speaking at the PwC CEO Dialogues hosted by CNBC TV18, shed light upon how Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) or the Digital Rupee can be used for Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) and other niche specific requirements.

According to Zarin, unlike the ‘great payment mechanism’ UPI, the digital rupee can have a targeted use and an expiry date. It can be customized in multiple ways taking into account requirement.

“To get the scale, if you do DBT or food coupon like for example, in COVID all that kind of stuff that happened, CBDC is a great tool to use it for a very targeted use end date, end expiry whatever, you can customise it. So that’s the play that I see. It will come,” said Zarin.

“CBDC may have its own niche. So, you can have a very specific kind of way you can use CBDC,” she said. It can also be used to achieve financial inclusivity in the Indian society.

The adoption of digital currency will be a struggle, nevertheless it will evolve the same way as UPI has evolved over the years.

At the PwC CEO Dialogues, the Managing Director(MD) of State Bank of India (SBI), Ashwini Kumar Tewari talked of the Digital Rupee serving as a backup, in the interest of national security, if UPI is compromised.

“Something happens to UPI, we have the CBDC. So I think we should … also encourage it so that it also comes up as a viable payment mechanism which is kind of a default vis-à-vis the UPI, so that’s something I think we have not considered so far,” said Tewari.

The RBI which launched the Digital Rupee in December 2022 plans to have one million users for the currency by June end, deputy governor T Rabi Shankar said earlier in the day.

“No specific date for the launch of CBDC to the public at large but we hope to have 1 million customers by June end,” he said.

The RBI is also planning to make the CBDC interoperable with the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow