Scindia Calls for Telecom-Fintech Convergence to Build Trusted Digital Finance

Union Minister for Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia has said telecom networks and financial technology must increasingly converge to build a trusted and intelligent digital finance ecosystem, linking digital infrastructure, financial platforms and artificial intelligence.

Speaking at the Global Fintech Fest 2026, Scindia described the next phase of India's fintech growth as a shift from connecting people and platforms to connecting intelligence with opportunity.

He said the country's telecom infrastructure has become the foundation for fintech expansion, with the mobile phone increasingly serving as a "new bank branch" and mobile networks acting as gateways to credit and investment.

The Minister pointed to the convergence of 5G, BharatNet, Aadhaar, UPI, fintech and artificial intelligence as central to widening access to digital financial services.

On the India AI Mission, he said it has a capitalisation of nearly Rs 20,000 crore, along with 38,000 GPUs, 14 cloud partners and 7,500 datasets, aimed at building national AI capabilities.

According to Scindia, combining AI, telecom networks and financial digital public infrastructure could enable faster credit assessments, personalised financial advice and real-time fraud detection, shifting finance from a reactive system to one that is more predictive and increasingly autonomous.

He stressed, however, that greater use of technology would require stronger safeguards against financial fraud and compromised digital identities. The government, he said, is working to move from detecting fraud after it occurs to anticipating and preventing fraudulent transactions before money leaves a customer's account.

He cited the Financial Fraud Risk Indicator, mandated by the Reserve Bank of India, as part of efforts to identify suspicious transactions and improve coordination across the banking ecosystem.

Highlighting progress in digital payments, Scindia said UPI now connects more than 1,000 banks and processes close to 240 billion transactions annually, involving around USD 4 trillion in value. The platform has expanded to nine countries, and India is looking to take the technology to another 20, he added.

The Minister also said India had moved from being primarily a market for technology to becoming a maker of technology, a designer of standards and a builder of platforms. Stressing that citizens must remain at the centre as technology and finance become increasingly autonomous, he said: "From India, serve the world and serve it securely."