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CEA warns AI must not become tool for exclusion in finance
Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran said India must be proactive about artificial intelligence safety and security, especially in the financial sector. Speaking at the ASSOCHAM FinTech Festival in New Delhi, he…
The Story in Brief
Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran said India must be proactive about artificial intelligence safety and security, especially in the financial sector. Speaking at the ASSOCHAM FinTech Festival in New Delhi, he warned that AI should not become a tool for exclusion and that humans must remain in the loop. Nageswaran said AI can help analyse creditworthiness and flag risks earlier, but its deployment should not deny deserving individuals access to credit.
He also said the next 20 years will be much harder than the three decades since the 1991 reforms, citing climate, technology, geopolitics and the weaponisation of capabilities. On cross-border payments, he argued that trade volumes matter more than payment infrastructure. Nageswaran described fintech as an enabler that should follow the real economy, not lead it. He called for both public and private sectors to raise their game.
The Indian Opinion
The CEA’s balanced warning cuts through two lazy narratives, that AI is an unqualified boon or that it is a threat to be blocked. The real risk is neither. It is that India’s financial sector, in its rush to adopt AI, may accidentally exclude the very borrowers it needs to reach. The CEA’s “cart before the horse” remark is a useful test: will the fintech sector’s growth in credit be matched by a rise in real economic activity, or will lending simply chase already-wealthy customers? The next RBI data on credit penetration will tell.
Sources (2): thehindubusinessline.com, timesnownews.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above.
Updated: this story now draws on 2 sources.
