India undergoing 'exciting digital transformation, says IMF

Washington: India is currently pursuing an “exciting” route of digital transformation which can be a learning experience for everyone, according to the IMF which is featuring a case study on the country’s digital revolution in its new book. Vitor Gaspar, Director of the International Monetary Fund’s Fiscal Affairs Department, the IMF will put out a book titled ‘Digital Revolutions in Public Finance’.

“It is about what is happening in the world in terms of the use of digital technology in public finance. It is also looking at the future trying to foresee what is coming as a true set of revolutions. One of the case studies in the book is India,” he said.

According to Gaspar, India is currently pursuing “an alternative and very exciting” route in which it is making the use of digital technology and digital records in public administration with new technologies that make use of financial inclusion and biometrics.

“And by combining these new technologies it was possible for programs in India to improve targeting quite considerably particularly for rural populations that were supposed to benefit from the programs,” he told PTI in an interview.

“It was also possible to make sure that there were no leakages of any significance in the system, that monies were not being diverted to other ends. And both from the viewpoint of social policy but also from the viewpoint of efficiency and growth. The results are quite impressive,” Gaspar said.

He said the process of digital transformation in India offered the promise of much better targeting and much better value for money than what India was able to deliver in the past. “So that seems to be the route that India is taking. And from the viewpoint of the Fund, we hope that we’re going to be able to learn a lot from it. And we’re following it closely,” Gasper said.