"Sanctions have always hurt the poor, the weak and the children.” – Daniel Wilson
With the sanctions on Russia in full swing, Google pay, VISA and Mastercard have suspended their operations in the country. This has resulted in an economic standstill.
Imagine the situations of the corporates and businesses in Russia without these operations. Can they survive with these situations being forced upon them? Would your business survive the daily payment as usual requirements should there be a sanction on your country? Have you prepared yourself and your business to handle such challenges?
India is not alien to sanctions. During Pokhran tests, the West had imposed sanctions on India. Having learnt the lessons from that, India has done a lot in this regard in last couple of years and currently has the potential to handle these situations. The current government brought the UPI and RuPay concepts as part of its policy called 'AatmaNirbhar Bharat', which means a 'Self Reliant India'.
In the payment world, India has built substantial capability since the launch of the RuPay debit card under the NPCI, which today processes more transactions than VISA or MASTERCARD in India for Debit cards. While working on the next level of steps for being self reliant, India has also been promoting these initiatives through various channels to increase the awareness and credibility of Indian systems. Therefore, should there be sanctions on India, it is much better prepared to overcome the difficulties, if any.
During the current situation can India help the global community by offering CBDC based alternative payment system? As per an article from NDTV, the benefit of placing India’s CBDC as an alternative to the SWIFT system is that it will increase the speed, volume, and frequency of global trade. Read more about this here.
Having said that, it is very important for you to analyze the risks of your business dependencies on systems and transactions which rely upon another country, another government, vendors or suppliers.
Are you self reliant today? Can you continue your business during such instances? If not, think seriously about this and work upon the improvement areas to ensure your business is resilient from all such impacts.
At Gorisco, our motto is 'Embedding Resilience' and we are committed to make the organizations and their workforce resilient. Reach out to us if you have any queries, clarifications or need any support on your initiatives.
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