India’s technology leader demands an embrace of cryptocurrency as an asset class

Nandan Nilekani has called on India to consider cryptocurrencies as an active class so that authorities around the world can learn how to adapt the technology.

Infosys, president of information technology and consulting company believes that cryptocurrencies are too volatile and energy intensive to use as a means of payment and is native to India. Unified payment interface digital payment infrastructure as well as more effective. But he said cryptography should be promoted as an asset to buy and sell, as a commodity.

“Just like if you have some gold or real estate assets, you can have some of your assets in the cryptocurrency,” he told the Financial Times in an interview. “I think there is a role for cryptography as a stored value, but it’s certainly not in a transactional sense.”

Nilekani said it would allow people and businesses to touch the $ 1.5 billion market to “put crypto boys to put their wealth in the Indian economy”.

The technology executive has long worked with Indian authorities to help work on digital policies, among other things Aadhaar biometric identity program. He also chaired the central bank’s digital payments committee in 2019.

India has great potential in the cryptocurrency market, but the official position of the country is not clear, in spirit an absolute ban despite the increase in volume among local traders.

The ban would make India one of the most draconian jurisdictions in the world when it comes to digital currency, authorities around the world consider how to regulate cryptography.

The Supreme Court of India last year overturned the 2018 central bank directive by tightening the cryptocurrency. But the market continues to operate in the gray zone, as some banks have recently threatened to take action against crypto traders.

The government said this year that it would ban private digital currencies in the hope that it would introduce legislation in favor of an official central bank coin. Since then officials have made more of a friendly sound.

Infosys has enthusiastically embraced blockchain technology, which is the basis of cryptocurrencies, because it wants to offer its multinational customers a growing range of digital tools.

But it was the IT industry in India hit hard the second severe wave of coronavirus in the country, companies and regulators are concerned about the possible disruption of back office operations by companies suffering from widespread infection. Nilekani said the impact of the business was limited and cases were dwindling.

Nilekani argued that Infosys ’experience and scale (the company has about 250,000 employees) meant it was a good place to move forward while companies upgraded their internal systems to accommodate the post-pandemic routine of remote or flexible work.

This includes a request to switch to the cloud. Although Infosys has not normally revealed the identity of its customers, it has gained business over the past year with Daimler, a German automaker and Vanguard US investment team.

“I really think the chances today are better than ever,” Nilekani said. “In the 40 years I’ve been in this industry, I’ve never seen so much change and acceleration happen.”