By Savi Khanna

At the 3rd edition of Bw Businessworld Festival of Fintech Conclave and Awards 2023, Sai Ganesh Vootukuri, Head Online Applications, NPCI Bharat BillPay, addressed the gathering on innovation as a journey.

Speaking on the path to innovation, Mr. Vootukuri stated, “The relevance of fintech relies on the journey, rather than the next tangible goal. The new generations quickly adapt to technology, and look for continuous innovation.”

He further added, “Innovation in transportation has happened in a total of six waves beginning from textiles and iron, moving on to steam power, rail, aviation, and software developments in road transport. The ongoing wave emerged in 2020, with a rise in AI, robotics, and drones.”  

The upsurge of AI has led to diverse transportation, including drone deliveries which have reduced the dependency on the human workforce. With time, the adaption of these waves has increased and the duration between two waves has decreased which indicates rapid innovations. 

“Similarly, in the financial institution system, the 1950s witnessed the emergence of credit cards, magnetic strips, and ATMs. In 1994, fintech came into play with online and mobile payments, variables, and invisible payments.”

Technology is driving change. Today, people do not view innovations as a threat to jobs, rather it is viewed as an opportunity to upskill and improve the quality of jobs. 

“There are two paths to innovation, the outside-in approach which takes the market feedback using it as inputs for innovations. The inside-out approach begins with focusing on technology to create new markets and avenues”, Vootukuri shared.

The address concluded by comparing Fin-Tech to Tech-Fin. While fintech analyses the current financial system and incorporates technology to make the system better, tech-fin looks at the existing technology to create value exchanges around it to create new ecosystems and new avenues.