Mobile Phones to Replace Debit Cards, ATMs in 4 Years: Niti Aayog CEO

Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant Saturday said debit and credit cards as well as ATMs will be redundant in next three-four years and people will use their mobile phones for financial transactions.

He further said that with India being a country where 72 percent population is below 32 years of age, it will have an advantage over other regions like the US and Europe in terms of demographic dividend.

"India will make credit cards, debit cards and ATMs technologically redundant in next 3-4 years and we all will be using mobiles for doing many transactions," Kant said at Amity University Noida campus where he was felicitated with an honorary doctorate degree.

Kant said that India is the only country in the world with billion biometrics and as many mobile phones and bank accounts and therefore, in future, it will be the only nation which will make a lot of disruptions.

More financial transactions will be done on mobile phones and this trend is already rising spirally, he said.

"India is growing at around 7.5 percent per annum and it is an oasis of growth in the midst of a very barren economic landscape across the world but our challenge is to grow at even higher rates of 9-10 percent," Kant said.

He said that India is passing through a window of demographic transition, which rarely happens in history.

About "72 percent of India is below the age of 32 and the population will keep getting younger and younger till 2040 while the population across America and Europe will keep getting older and older... We need a society which will constantly innovate, which will continuously disrupt," the Niti Aayog CEO said.