Bengaluru hosts Niti Aayog and six central ministries supported 2nd Micro Experience of FinTech Festival India

Bengaluru: India’s Silicon Valley, Bengaluru, today hosted the second Micro Experience of FinTech Festival India 2021-2022 for a daylong session on Investment, cybersecurity, digital payments, and Neobanking among others. FinTech Festival India is organized by Constellar Exhibitions (a subsidiary of TEMASEK and Singapore Press Holdings which organizes the Singapore FinTech Festival) and supported by NITI Aayog and six central government ministries.
The Bengaluru conference was inaugurated through keynote addresses by Dr. E.V. Ramana Reddy, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary to Government, Department of Electronics Information Technology Biotechnology and Science & Technology, Government of Karnataka, and Smt. Meena Nagaraj. C.N, IAS, Director, Directorate of Information Technology & Biotechnology, Government of Karnataka.
Dr. E.V. Ramana Reddy, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary to Government, Department of Electronics Information Technology Biotechnology and Science & Technology, Government of Karnataka, said, “Indian economy has undergone a radical transformation in the last decade. The confluence of technology and finance or fintech has been at the center of this change. In India one-eighth of the population still remains unbanked which is why holistic financial inclusion has been a key factor driving government support for fintech innovation. The Indian fintech market is currently valued at USD 31 bn and is expected to grow to USD 84 bn by 2025 at a compound growth of 22%.

Karnataka has been the most innovative state in India, ranked no 1 in India Innovation Index in 2019 and 2020. We are the first state in the country to have come out with sector-specific policies in Information Technology, Bio-Technology, Startups, AVGC, ESDM, Electric vehicles, etc. During the first six months of 2021, Bengaluru has attracted USD 800 mn VC funds in the fintech sector. As the Department of Electronics Information Technology Biotechnology and Science & Technology, Government of Karnataka we are engaging with various countries through our global innovation alliance partnership to collaborate in various sectors, fintech is one of them.”

The conference was also attended by some leading industry speakers such as Dr. Sriram Birudavolu, Chief Executive Officer, Cyber Security Centre of Excellence, Data Security Council of India, Lizzie Chapman, Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder, ZestMoney, Ganesh Rengaswamy, Managing Partner, Quona Capital, Anand Lunia, General Partner, IndiaQuotient, Anubhav Jain, Co-Founder, Rupifi, Anish Achuthan, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Open Financial Technologies, Madhusudan E, Member of Fintech Association for Consumer Empowerment, and Co-Founder & CEO of KreditBee and Sridhar Sidhu, Senior Vice President, Information & Cyber Security Group, Wells Fargo, Balu Ramachandran, Chief Business Officer, Simplamong others.

A white paper on ‘Karnataka – Cyber Powering India’ was also unveiled today in front of the august gathering. Published by Ernst & Young (EY), Knowledge Partner of FFI, the white paper deep-dives into the startup ecosystem of Karnataka and Bengaluru from the perspective of cybersecurity and cyber tech. According to the whitepaper, for Karnataka to emerge as the leader in the space of cyber tech, the state has to consider the ‘Security by Design’ approach besides ‘Building resilient Supply Chains, Critical Care and FinTech’ and ‘Implementing the recommendations of Cyber Security Vision 2025’.

Baldeep Singh Pahwa, Country Head & General Manager, Constellar Exhibitions, said, “We are delighted to host our second conference in Bengaluru and extremely grateful to the Government of Karnataka for providing us with all the required support. After the successful launch of our inaugural session in Hyderabad, the discourse on fintech and how it can boost financial inclusion was elevated to a different altitude through our daylong session in Bengaluru. True to being the country’s Silicon Valley, the city saw some great and insightful discussions on cybersecurity, neo banking, and digital payments among others. We aim to provide a global center stage to India’s fintech ecosystem through our series of conferences thereby boosting our dream of making India the global hotspot of fintech and startups.”

Fintech Festival India is the country’s largest FinTech confluence, to be held over the next eight months. It will witness participation from over 500 Indian and global leaders and 12,000+ delegates. FFI will see participation from Brazil, Israel, UK, Russia, Canada, Finland, Japan, Singapore among others.

FinTech Festival India is supported by the Government of India’s, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), Ministry of Small & Medium Enterprise (MSME), The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (Ministry of Commerce and Industry), Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Limited ( A Government of India Enterprise – Under Ministry of Information & Broadcasting) and Startup India (Department for promotion of Industry and Internal Trade & Invest India) along with Government of Karnataka’s Department of Electronics, IT, Bt and S&T along with Innovate Karnataka & K-tech.
In addition to the government, FFI which aims to unleash the power of FinTech across the country has also drawn interest from industry including Indian insurance behemoth Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), World Trade Centre Mumbai & Bengaluru, Perfios, Lemon Yellow, Kristal.AI, NeoSOFT Technologies and other.
Fintech Festival India will be conducted in physical and digital format through 10 Micro Experience Conferences in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Delhi, Guwahati, Chennai, Mumbai, Gift City (Ahmedabad), and Pune. The festival will end with a 3-day mega event in New Delhi from March 9 – 11, 2022.
The next Micro Experience will be held in New Delhi on August 27, 2021.