NITI Aayog and Mastercard Release Report on ‘Connected Commerce: Creating a Roadmap for a Digitally Inclusive Bharat’

NITI Aayog and Mastercardtoday released a report titled‘Connected Commerce: Creating a Roadmap for a Digitally Inclusive Bharat’. The reportidentifies challenges in accelerating digital financial inclusion in India and provides recommendations for making digital services accessible to its 1.3 billion citizens.

The report was released by NITI Aayog’s Vice Chairman Dr Rajiv Kumar, CEO Amitabh Kant, and Ajit Pai, Distinguished Expert and Head, Economics and Finance Cell, along with Ravi Aurora, Senior Vice President and Group Head, Global Community Relations, Mastercard.

Based on five roundtable discussions held in October and November 2020, the report highlights key issues and opportunities,with inferences and recommendations on policy and capacity building across agriculture, small business (MSMEs), urban mobility and cyber security. Experts from the government, banking sector, the financial regulator, fintech enterprises, and various ecosystem innovators participated in the discussions led by NITI Aayog and supported by Mastercard.

NITI Aayog was a knowledge partner in this endeavour. The series of workshopsand the outcome reportwere curated by business advisory firm FTI Consulting.The report reflects the discussions held during the roundtables