Known as the city of destiny, Vizag recently made its presence felt in the global fintech scene. We witnessed global financial technology start-ups like SOSA, DXC, and Cardlytics announcing their launch in the city. How was this possible? Let’s consider some of the enabling factors in this article.
Launch of Fintech Valley Vizag
In 2016, the government of Andhra Pradesh launched a project named Fintech Valley Vizag. Since then Vizag has developed a self-sustainable global fintech ecosystem in its premises. The Valley has outlined a series of initiatives in Vizag to gain global recognition. Few of them are detailed below:
- The Blockchain Business Conference 2017
Blockchain has proven to be the key to India's digital future. The security woes of fintech organisations are expected to be resolved through blockchain technologies. In 2017, the Valley conducted an international business conference primarily addressing the topic of the blockchain. Vizag also hosted global leaders of the blockchain technology during this conference.
- The launch of BFSI case repository program
To operationalize the BFSI Use Case repository, the Valley launched a Hackathon and Innovation Challenge. This event was backed by many leading banks, insurance companies, NBFCs, and capital markets companies.
- Fintech Valley Accelerator Program
This program gave an opportunity to the selected startups of the valley to connect with the leading Fintech players around the world. This three months long program provides market access, technology resources, fundraising and legal guidance to the beginners.
Though these events boosted the image of Fintech ecosystem in Vizag, more key facilities were developed around the city prior to this.
Building the Fintech Ecosystem
The whole state of Andhra Pradesh was prepared to host the Fintech Valley of Vizag through the initiatives of the state government that include the following among others.
- All the Gram Panchayats of the state were provided with a high-speed internet connection and all the businesses were connected to a 1Gbit/s internet.
- Literacy in Digital Financing: A program named Marpu Nestam was launched in AP. Agents were deployed all over the state to educate people on digital financial literacy on an incentive scheme.
- Andhra Pradesh - Purse - The government launched a mobile app comprising 13 mobile banking and 10 other mobile wallets. It helped to promote E-transactions in the state.
- The dashboard of Chief Minister: The chief minister of the state was provided with a dashboard to effectively monitor the key performance indicators of government departments.
- E-Pragathi: Digitalisation of government projects were carried out to enable E-governance. These projects include education health and agriculture.
The Incentive Plans
Various incentive schemes were introduced for the companies to kick-off their launches with. For projects with land allotments, a discount rate of 80% and $700 per employee was offered while $1500 per employee was offered for the projects without land allotments. The electricity tariff also had an incentive of 20% discount.
In general, the state government of Andhra Pradesh is determined to make the Fintech Valley a global hub for Financial Technologies. With the current aggressive rate of promotion and success, we can expect that dream to come true in the near future.
