Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has asked former UIDAI chairman and Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani to advise the NDA government on digital payments, especially on linking governmental banking services directly to its employees, including the Army, judiciary and paramilitary forces.
Nilekani, who contested the 2014 Lok Sabha unsuccessfully on a Congress ticket from Bangalore South, is likely to accept the challenge and join NITI Aayog as principal advisor to the Modi government, it is learnt.
He will be designated as “digital advisor” to the central government.
Incidentally, in an interview to Barkha Dutt on NDTV, Nilekani had come out in support of the government’s demonetisation move.
“Short term pain is inevitable but this is a big step for financial inclusion’ The slowdown is only for a short term.. Economic growth will bounce back.. This shock is good for India… Digitisation will compensate for the short-term slowdown and adoption of technology will lead to long-term benefits,” the IT czar had said in the interview.
