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Quote on Rural India Set to Witness Next Wave of Digital Growth by Mr. Rajesh Magow, Co-founder & Group CEO, MakeMyTrip

“The digital revolution has benefitted the urban class and maybe the semi-urban class. I do see the next wave of growth or benefit will be for rural India. I'm pretty confident that it will happen because of the foundation that has been set,” said Mr. Rajesh Magow, Co-founder & Group CEO, MakeMyTrip, and Vice-Chairman, IAMAI, during a session at the 19th India Digital Summit (IDS) today. IDS 2025 is being organized by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) in collaboration with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, supported by Digital India, Skill India and Make in India.

Expanding on his point about the digital empowerment of rural India Mr. Magow said, “We would have one billion people on smartphones. It will cover a lot of the rural population, open up many avenues for them, and generate employment. There are so many creators and influencers not only in urban areas but in rural areas as well. This is going to to bring in more inclusivity. The government, the public, and the private sector need to create more awareness, change the mindset, and make actual investments in pushing and developing skills to pick up new ideas.”

“One of the foundational pillars of inclusive growth in India was the UID program, which started in 2010. In the digital world, UID is being used to give away the benefits. The second foundation that has been set already is the UPI. It has democratized the payment peer-to-peer transfer, and then, the Aadhaar is helping people open the bank account without any leakage, intermediaries, etc.,” he added.

 Mr.Magow also underlined the impotance of the private sector’s initiative to adopt technologies, and commented, "The government has already been doing a lot with the digitization drive spearheaded from the top. The focus on the startup community and programmes has received the right visibility. The private sector should be at the forefront of adopting technologies. Every possible record, including income tax, legal or real estate records, and even most financial services, is digitised today. Even in the travel and tourism industry, airport traffic management has been eased due to DigiLocker. DigiYatra programs are game changers and need to be scaled up now. There are serious investments in creating digital infrastructure, and we should not lose momentum by cutting back on investments.”

Raising the pressing issue of cyberthreats Mr. Magow said, "We must be cognizant of the cyber security issues and not in a denial mode. Only after accepting the scale of cyber crimes happening can we address them. Globally, all the companies are facing cyber attacks. Therefore, many businesses, including MakeMyTrip, have made tremendous investments and brought in a lot of focus in this area. The criminal mind is always a few steps ahead of us. They can only be tackled by thinking proactively, putting checks and balances in place, and making the right investments in technology. Another way to address cyber attacks is by forming strict laws against these crimes. The third important aspect is collaboration. By sharing the data, a lot of such attacks can be prevented easily."

IDS 2025 is being Powered by NPCI. Amazon.in and MPL are Platinum partners. Among Gold Partners are PhonePe; Australia Trade and Investment Commission; IDA Ireland; Paytm ads, Jagran New Media and Exotel. Route Mobile is the Cloud Communications Partner. Silver Partners include AWS, ShareChat, Shiprocket; Times Internet, and TV9 Network.

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