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With rising internet penetration and increasing income, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India's digital economy is likely to witness exponential growth to $800 billion by 2030. She said India has over 6,300 fintechs, of which 28 per cent are into investment technology, 27 per cent into payments, 16 per cent into lending and 9 per cent into banking infrastructure, while over 20 per cent are into other fields. She noted that so they are spread across different activities and not concentrated.

She said ‘at the same time, the digital economy in India is being pegged at $85-90 billion in the calendar year 2020 and that will see an exponential rise to $800 billion by 2030. They should be reaching $800 billion in the back drop of increased internet penetration, rising incomes and also the young Indian population’. The government has made it easier in terms of smooth and easy access to the stock markets, with technology such as e-KYC and e-Aadhaar helping the retail investors come into the market.

The total number of retail investor accounts has almost doubled from about 45 million as of March 2016 to 88.2 million by March 31, 2021. She highlighted that a 10 per cent rise in internet penetration results in an increase of 3.9 per cent in GDP per capita. Talking about push to digital economy, she said the recent Budget has announced setting up of 75 Digital Banking Units (DBUs). She said ‘They may function from one place but they may serve any number of districts but we are also targeting 75 districts to be covered and I guess the DPU will promote better accessibility of banking services, affordability, convenience, and also more control over their own finances for the customers by providing a one stop digital banking account or digital banking’.