Sanjiv Bajaj | Credit: JAYANT PEDNEKAR
India should refrain from outright banning cryptocurrencies and virtual digital assets, said Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) President Sanjiv Bajaj, noting that there may be positive applications for such products as well.
“At CII, we believe these are new innovative assets or tools or products that are coming to market. We shouldn’t ban them outright,” Mr. Bajaj said in an interview with Peppystores.
“We know they have negatives, but they can also create positives and they connect the world globally,” he said. “So our proposal is to monitor and regulate them, maybe in a sandbox environment, try them out in a more controlled environment and learn from them, and then decide what makes sense and what doesn’t,” he argued, adding, that the country can then judge whether they are beneficial or not.
One of CII’s recommendations for financially supporting India’s growth, whether in investment, consumption or protection, is to allow non-bank financial firms “to do more and more of what banks are allowed to do, with reasonable Measures to mitigate risk and monitor,” Mr. Bajaj said, citing the growth of such firms over the past decade.
Referring to the rupee’s fall to record lows, Mr Bajaj said that whatever the currency trend, it will increase the costs of some businesses and benefit others, but a gradual move is key.
“At some point the water has to find its own level. As long as it doesn’t trigger a tsunami and volatility is reduced so that it occurs gradually, companies can consider these costs or benefits depending on which side of the equation they are on,” he said.
