MasterCard to make India plastic-friendly

India more exciting than China for MasterCard MasterCard to make India plastic-friendly MasterCard''s India-born President and CEO Ajay Banga today said India is a "more exciting" market than China for the cards and payment giant and the company is focused on shifting as many consumers in India as possible from cash to the electronic payment system.

MasterCard to make India plastic-friendly

"India still uses a lot of cash in its economy. All I am interested in is converting utilisation for retail payments from cash to alternative forms," Banga told PTI here. Speaking on the sidelines of the ''India Conference'' organised by the Harvard Business School (HBS) and Harvard Kennedy School, the IIM Ahemdabad alumnus said India is undertaking various steps to help drive "electronification" -- from the unique identification number scheme to mobile payments.

Sheer availability and acceptance of cards will help drive growth of the electronic payment system in India and "I am keen to do that," he said.Banga, who was named MasterCard CEO last year, added that cash is expensive for an economy to print, distribute and secure, costing between 0.6 to 1.5 per cent of the country''s GDP.

The presence of cash in an economy also facilitates income tax evasion as well as illegal cross border activity."Electronic payment would not facilitate that," he said, adding that the market in India is ready for a boom in use of electronic payment systems.Earlier, when asked by HBS Dean Nitin Nohria to choose between India and China in terms of which is the "more exciting market for MasterCard", Banga replied "India." He said the world over, the "tonality" regarding India has changed completely.

This is a testament to the country''s "unbelievable economic growth," he said, adding that hopefully, India''s GDP growth rate will surpass that of China''s in a few years.Speaking to Harvard students, Banga said the most interesting part of India''s growth story is that the economic development has continued irrespective of which political party is in power. Lauding India''s entrepreneurial energy, Banga said India has the opportunity to have balanced domestic and external growth as well as "diversified growth" in areas like services, agriculture and industry.

He pointed out that while in the short and medium term, the services sector will create more jobs, India has to build its manufacturing capabilities for sustained economic development. "Eventually India has to go past the services sector into developing manufacturing. There is need for the manufacturing sector to drive subsequent growth," which would require a series of reforms on capital formation, land acquisition and more infrastructure development in non-urban areas. MORE PTI YAS ARV