Catalyst FINposium 6
Event: Workshop on Innovation Partnerships with Knowledge and Policy Stakeholders
Date: December 7th, 2016
Location: New Delhi
Attendance: 41 participants representing 25 organizations
OBJECTIVES
- Introduce Catalyst’s plan and team to the core partner base;
- Validate support for business incubation proposals and policy priorities generated in the previous two workshops; and
- Engage Delhi-based stakeholders, including donor and development agencies, research organizations and think tanks, financial institutions and telcos, fintech and retail-tech companies and VCs, on ecosystem- based innovation partnerships for roll out in Catalyst’s Digital Payment Labs.
KEY OUTCOMES
Intro:
Badal Malick, CEO, made a presentation on Catalyst, its unique approach, and plan to set up a Digital Payment Lab in Jaipur. Following this, Dr. Rajesh Shukla from PRICE presented ICE360 data on financial behaviours by income and occupational categories.
Innovation Partnerships:
The open-floor brainstorming session solicited innovation ideas. Proposals shared included open-loop transit payments platforms, supply chain digitization models based on brand aggregation and shorter order-to-fulfillment cycles, digital credit ecosystem with lenders and multiple front-end payment providers, and new peer-to-peer mechanisms for digital to cash liquidity.
Approach Validation:
An insightful discussion on the “Need for Public Private Partnerships to Drive Digital Payments” stressed the need for more effective private sector engagement by opening up payments infrastructures such as UPI to all players beyond just banks, rethinking government and bank driven business models to accelerate use and liberalize acquiring, and creating enabling infrastructure (broadband connectivity, affordable smartphones). Also, the government’s role was emphasized in facilitating interoperability, and sustainable use of digital payments including independent and smart regulation, including customer protection and unbundling the value chain similar to the power sector. The panel also suggested that the private sector needs to be focus on low cost acceptance modes like UPI and QR code (vs. POS/mPOS), and experiences and lower friction interfaces that are optimized for underserved segments, and more strategic alliances.
Catalyst was an initiative funded by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the mSTAR Program to increase adoption of digital payments in India, using a targeted ecosystem approach from May 2016 to January 2019. Our vision is to realize an inclusive digital economy that meets the needs of all Indians. As of February 2019, the program is an independent project housed at IFMR LEAD, at the Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR).
