Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday urged the industry to move his focus on the city markets and lead another wave of innovation in rural and agricultural sectors and call it business opportunities and development imperiv.
Sitharaman, who spoke on digital salaries of 2025, called for sharper pressure to integrate micro, small and medium -sized enterprises (MSME) with account aggregators and emphasized the need for adapted financial products for farmers and consumers in the countryside.
“Every FINTECH company should consider rural India as fertile land, not only for social responsibility, but as an opportunity to create new markets,” she said, adding that the demand of consumers in rural areas showed a strong and permanent revival.
The Minister drew parallels with a rapidly moving consumer goods sector and stressed how deep penetration of the countryside became the main growth strategy for many leading brands, a model he said to be replicated.
Sitharaman also identified the key risks that are approaching the expanding digital economy of India, urgently on startups and payments to invest more in digital literacy and cyber security.
“Literacy must be improved. Cyber security is the case where I had interaction with several startups and fintech companies,” she said, warning of growing threats such as deep and digital fraud.
“We need a set of Fintech companies that are constantly working to provide solutions for newer challenges that are formed,” she added.
The Minister told recent discussions with startups and leaders of Fintech and emphasized the importance of ensuring that ordinary users were not “digitally arrested at home” by harmful actors or misleading platforms.
Another phase
Minister of Financial Services M. Nagaraju outlined another phase of Indian ways of digital payments and emphasized the need to deepen adoption across sectors and geographical areas, especially in insufficiently operated regions.
“Our priorities must include deepening digital payments across sectors and geographies,” Nagaraj said at the event.
At the same time, we have to strengthen the framework to prevent cyber security and fraud and support digital and financial literacy in local places, he added.
Notes come as Indian digital payments infrastructure in India, which have been described worldwide as its scope and efficiency, entering the new chapter of expansion, pushing city centers and country economies.
In March 2024 approved the cabinet Union and £1,500 Crore motivational schemes to promote transactions with small BHIM-upi platforms, especially among small traders to stimulate use in semi-town and rural India, by expanding infrastructure through tools such as UPI 123pay for function phones.
It has also introduced newer solutions such as UPI Lite and Litex for faster and more reliable payments in low connectivity environment.
Nagaraj, who praised the role of digital companies in cashless transition, said their contributions were more than just facilitating transactions.
“Your work is not just about permitting payments, but about allowing options,” he said.
“You are helping to build a financial system that is more modern, more inclusive and globally admired,” he added.
In recent years, India has become a global leader in digital payments, while the monthly UPI transactions in 2025 exceeded 14 billion.
However, challenges persist, especially digital literacy, user safety and ecosystem resistance.
(Tagstotranslate) FINTECH INDUSTRY (T) Rural markets (T) Digital payments
