AI, machine learning to support digital lending landscape in post-covid era (Mint)

Mains Paper 3:Science and Tech
Prelims level: V-CIP
Mains level: Role of technology in post-covid era

Context:

• Covid-19 has become a major part of our lives. It has not only disrupted our lifestyle and how we do businesses but brought unprecedented challenges to the economy.
• Digital transformation has accelerated, businesses have amplified their technology investments on cloud-based products and services, and digital sales have gained momentum with traditional retail stores going online for the first time.
• The lockdown expedited the digital-first approach helping the country’s Digital India vision move a step closer to reality.

Boost in digital payments:

• Areas such as online grocery ........................................................................................

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Growth of digital payment platforms:

• Many industry reports cite that the pandemic has acted as a catalyst in the growth of digital payment platforms.
• In countries like the US, digital payments are expected to reach $4,769,370 million in 2020, which is a year-on-year increase of over 15%.
• In India, the finance ministry, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) as well as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have pushed for digital payments to make payments contactless, urging banks and financial institutions to promote digital transactions.
• However, the adverse effects of the pandemic are trickling down to major sectors of the Indian economy, with auto, retail, manufacturing, hospitality and aviation bearing the brunt of the lockdown and affecting payments linked to these sectors.
• Microfinance lenders must be equipped to address the credit requirement, while offering affordable and convenient repayment solutions to ease the impact of the crisis.
• Digital disbursement of buy-now-pay-later solutions will gain traction as micro credit helps in easing cash crunch.
• With a minimal burden on interest, if repaid within a specific time frame, digitization of short-term credit processes such as eKYC and V-CIP (video-based customer identification process) will only aid the upsurge in the trend.
• Being seamless and digital in nature, it will offer people the convenience to cope with salary delays. Using micro credit, customers can clear their utility bills and even use the solution during medical emergencies.
• Leveraging technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data analytics, automated loan offerings and contactless lending services will act as enablers of timely digital disbursements.

Apart from maintaining the current lifestyle:

• Micro credit will be crucial for ................................................................................................

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Conclusion:

• Technology will act as an enabler for innovation and risk mitigation as it will be a key priority for digital lending companies. Focus on data science and analytics will remove the risk of fraud and delinquencies.
• It will also be a driver to navigate consumers through credit complexities created by covid-19. Once the pandemic is over, it will become extremely important to ensure that fintechs can provide the services the consumers need.
• Hence, implementation of automated processes to gain insights into eligibility and enabling of rapid processing will become key to their success.

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1)With reference to the G-7 or ‘Group of Seven’, consider the following statements:
1. The G-7 does not have a formal constitution or a fixed headquarters.
2. The decisions taken by leaders during annual summits are binding.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer.............................

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Mains Questions:
Q.1)What are the reasons behind growth in digital platform during the pandemic?