India can achieve economic growth of more than 10 per cent by embracing technology and innovation across sectors, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Saturday, stressing that greater efforts from all stakeholders would be needed to realise the vision of a Viksit Bharat by 2047.
Speaking at a fireside chat organised by the IIT Madras Alumni Association, Sitharaman said India needs to encourage a more positive outlook towards the country’s growth prospects.
“We have too many naysayers. We have too many people who have vicarious pleasure being derived if India fails. We really cannot afford that. We need to nudge these people to think positively,” she said.
The Finance Minister highlighted the growing role of technology and startups in transforming different sectors of the economy. She said technological interventions have helped connect agricultural producers with markets while also improving productivity.
Sitharaman cited the use of drones and aerial geospatial instruments for precision mapping of land parcels, saying such technologies have helped empower farmers.
She also highlighted the use of point-of-sale (POS) machines in fertiliser distribution. Under pilot testing, the system records details of farmers, their land and the crops being cultivated. It can then provide information on the quantity of fertiliser that may be required based on factors such as soil, irrigation and crop conditions.
During the event, Sitharaman also unveiled ‘Cashless Nation: How UPI Changed Everything’, a book by Dr Santanu Paul and B. Sambamurthy, at ‘Sangam 2026’, the annual conference of the IIT Madras Alumni Association and IIT Madras.
The book explores India’s digital payments transformation, including the conception, development and rapid expansion of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
Sitharaman also highlighted the growing global footprint of UPI. She had said last month that UPI was operational across 11 countries, including France, Singapore, the UAE, Greece and Mauritius.
“From powering seamless payments in India to enabling digital transactions across borders, UPI continues to take our digital public infrastructure to the world,” she had said.
According to the Finance Minister, UPI-enabled payment points have increased around 260 times since 2018, expanding digital payment access across the country.
She also highlighted the scale of India’s digital payments ecosystem, saying that one out of every two real-time digital payment transactions globally takes place in India.
Sitharaman said continued adoption of technology and innovation across sectors could play a significant role in helping India achieve higher economic growth and advance towards its Viksit Bharat 2047 goal.