DeMon: Tough task ahead for Naidu

New Delhi: A humongous task awaits Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, of charting the course of the nation post-demonetisation, having become the convener of the National Committee on the Digitisation Process.

His job is to come up with an action plan to rapidly expand the use of digital payment platforms across the country.

The Chief Minister is arriving here on Wednesday to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and hand over an interim report of the committee on the road ahead. He3 has already held one meeting with the officials of NITI Aayog, RBI and bankers, He is also said to have talked to all members of the committee through a video-conference.

On Wednesday, Naidu will be chairing the full-fledged committee meeting which will be attended by his counterparts from Naveen Patnaik of Odisha, Shivraj Singh Chouhan of Madhya Pradesh, Pawan Kumar Chamling of Sikkim, and Devendra Phadnavis of Maharashtra.

NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, Member Secretary and the planning body’s Vice- Chairman Arvind Panagariya, a member, will also be attending.

The committee meeting on Wednesday is expected to be attended by all the five special invitees: former UIDAI chairman and Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, Boston Consulting Group chairman Janmejaya Sinha, netCORE MD Rajesh Jain, iSPIRIT co-founder Sharad Sharma and IIM-Ahmedabad professor Jayant Varma.

The committee is aimed at “boosting the adoption of digital payments systems by people at the grass-root levels and small businesses," a statement from NITI Aayog said.

The committee has been tasked with examining existing global standards and best practices in the implementation of a cashless economy, and evaluating the benefits of adopting these standards in the Indian context.

It will also have to come up with a roadmap for the expansion of digital payment platforms, the public outreach to popularise cashless transactions, the administrative setup required and identify potential bottlenecks.

With the self-imposed deadline of December 31, the 50 days that the Prime Minister has sought for easing cash blues, approaching fast, the Centre is desperate to explain to people how it plans to go about easing people's problems.

Educating the large rural population and taking technology to the masses is a challenge that is now the headache of the digitisation committee headed by Naidu.

Naidu himself has had his flip-flops over the impact of demonetisation and its role in encouraging the Prime Minister to announce it.

All eyes are on the committee and the way-forward it plans to suggest in the wake of the Centre’s resolve to tighten the laws further for 100 per cent roll-out of demonetisation.

The Opposition, though divided, is just waiting to hit out at the Prime Minister and corner the government post-50 day deadline.

Naidu himself is confident of handling the situation and was seen happy on Monday here over the “increasing flow of money to the banks and the easing of cash crunch in the country".