The ups and downs of India’s digital transformation

Since leaving India, I have always remembered it as a country stuck in a time period no one could quite remember. More recently I have been trying to come to terms with the fact that India is not only an economic powerhouse, but quickly becoming a shining example of how digitisation can serve a country’s economy as well as its people.

While most Australians want to see the 5-cent coin abolished, India took the opposite tack and removed all high-denomination banknotes from circulation. The aim was to encourage use of electronic payments and to make high-value transactions more traceable, and it seems to have worked.

From same-day loans for small business through to a thriving tech market, there is a lot to stop and take notice of here.