BackInfosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan to lead RBI innovation hub
The Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH) will be guided and managed by a governing council (GC), led by the chairperson, the central bank said on TuesdayGopalakrishnan is at present the chief mentor of Start-up Village, an incubation hub for startups
PremiumKris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder of Infosys Ltd, will chair the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) new innovation hub, which aims to promote advancement in the financial sector using technology.
The Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH) will be guided and managed by a governing council (GC), led by the chairperson, the central bank said on Tuesday. Gopalakrishnan is at present the chief mentor of Start-up Village, an incubation hub for startups.
The other members of the council are Ashok Jhunjhunwala, institute professor, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, H. Krishnamurthy, principal research scientist, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, Gopal Srinivasan, chairman and managing director, TVS Capital Funds, A.P. Hota, former chief executive, National Payments Corporation of India, Mrutyunjay Mahapatra, former chief executive, Syndicate Bank, T. Rabi Sankar, executive director, RBI (ex-officio), Deepak Kumar, chief general manager, information technology, RBI (ex-officio), and K. Nikhila, director, Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology, Hyderabad (ex-officio).
The governing council will also have a chief executive who is yet to be appointed.
RBI had announced the plan to set up the hub on 6 August.
“The RBIH shall create an ecosystem that would focus on promoting access to financial services and products. This will also promote financial inclusion. The hub will collaborate with financial sector institutions, technology industry and academic institutions and coordinate efforts for exchange of ideas and development of prototypes related to financial innovations," RBI said.
The central bank also said it has received applications from 32 entities for the first cohort under its regulatory sandbox initiative, of which six have been selected for the test phase. Regulatory sandbox usually refers to live-testing of new products or services in a controlled regulatory environment for which regulators may or may not permit relaxations for the limited purpose of the testing.
Two entities started testing their products on 16 November and the remaining four are expected to start the test phase shortly, the central bank said. Natural Support Consultancy Services Pvt. Ltd has begun testing eRupaya, a set of near-field communication (NFC)-based prepaid card and NFC-enabled point of sale device, RBI said. The other company, Nucleus Software Exports Ltd is testing its offline digital cash product, PaySe, to help connect with rural areas for e-payments.
“The commencement of testing was delayed because of the covid-19 situation," RBI said.
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