India positions itself as a global fintech hub, leveraging AI and a robust digital infrastructure to deepen financial inclusion and drive sustainable growth, according to industry leaders at the 3rd India International FinTech Festival 2026.
India is deepening its pitch as a global fintech centre, with industry leaders saying the country’s digital rails, especially the Unified Payments Interface, Aadhaar and Jan Dhan accounts, have moved financial services from basic access towards a larger platform for innovation. At the 3rd India International FinTech Festival 2026 organised by ASSOCHAM in New Delhi, executives said the next phase will depend on artificial intelligence, stronger partnerships across the sector and a continued focus on trust and security. Public data cited by industry and government-linked sources shows the scale of the system: more than 144 crore Aadhaar numbers had been generated by March 2026 and Jan Dhan accounts had risen to nearly 58 crore, underscoring the breadth of India’s digital financial base.
Amitabh Chaudhry, who addressed the gathering as senior vice-president of ASSOCHAM and managing director and chief executive of Axis Bank, said India’s Digital Public Infrastructure has become globally recognised because it combines identity, payments and bank access in a way few countries have matched. He pointed to platforms such as DigiLocker, FASTag, the Account Aggregator framework, ONDC and the Digital Rupee as examples of how the system has expanded financial inclusion and widened digital access. Other recent reporting on India’s DPI notes that the framework now links identity verification, consent-based data sharing and digital payments into a single architecture designed to support welfare delivery, commerce and formal finance.
The discussion also reflected a shift in emphasis from access to sustainability. Gautam Aggarwal of Mastercard said the sector must now build a profitable and durable ecosystem, rather than focus only on the number of users brought online. He argued that AI should be used to expand reach while keeping products secure, transparent and consumer-friendly, particularly in smaller cities and rural markets. That view echoes broader analysis of India’s fintech landscape, which says AI, combined with DPI, could improve credit assessment, personalise services and extend formal finance to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises as well as informal workers.
Paytm president and group chief financial officer Madhur Deora said India’s digital payments system is already operating at extraordinary scale, with the country processing about 24 billion digital transactions worth around Rs 300 lakh crore each month. Google’s Kunal Guha described AI as a tool that can help smaller businesses compete more effectively, but both speakers stressed that growth will depend on cooperation between government, regulators and industry. Recent reporting on UPI and related infrastructure suggests that monthly payment volumes continue to set new benchmarks, while the rapid spread of smartphones and mobile connectivity is giving the ecosystem room to push further into mass-market and rural adoption.
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