 Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore, Theru Shenmugarathnam, a vice of influence in the world of finance. Mr. Ravi Manan, Managing Director of Monetary Authority of Singapore, a leading institution in FinTech, tens of thousands of participants from over 100 countries. Namaskar. It is a great honour to be the first head of government to deliver the keynote address at Singapore FinTech Festival. This is a tribute to the youth of India with its eyes firmly fixed to the future. It is an acknowledgement of the financial revolution sweeping through India and transforming the lives of 1.3 billion people. This is an event of finance and technology and it is also a festival. This is the season of the Indian Festival of Lights, the Pavli. It is celebrated all over the world as a victory of virtue, hope, knowledge and prosperity. The Diwali lights are still on in Singapore. The FinTech Festival is also a celebration of belief. Belief in the spirit of innovation and the power of imagination. Belief in the energy of youth and the passion for change. Belief in making the world a better place and it is no surprise that in just a third year this festival is already the world's largest festival. Singapore is a global hub for finance and it is now taking a leap into the digital future of finance. It is here in June this year that I launched India's rupee card and the first international remittance mobile app using India's world class Unified Payment Interface or BEAM UPI. Today I will have the honour to launch a global platform to connect FinTech firms and financial institutions beginning with ASEAN and Indian banks and FinTech companies. India and Singapore are also working to connect Indian and ASEAN small and medium enterprises anchored on an Indian platform and expanded globally. Friends, I have heard of an advice going around in startup circles to increase your venture capital or VC functioning of 10 percent, tell the investors you run a platform not a regular business. If you want to increase your VC funding by 20 percent, tell the investors that you are operating in the FinTech space but if you really want the investor to empty their pockets, tell them that you are using blockchain. It tells you of the excitement and promise of emerging technology to transform the world of finance. Indeed, history has shown that finance is often the first to embrace new technology and connectivity. Friends, we are in an age of a historic transition brought about by technology from desktop to cloud, from internet to social media, from IT services to internet of things. We have come a long way in a short time. There is a daily disruption in business. The character of the global economy is changing. Technology is defining competitiveness and power in the new world and it is creating boundless opportunities to transform lives. I had said at the United Nations in 2014 that we have to believe that development and empowerment can spread with this same speed at which Facebook, Twitter or mobile phones have spread across the world that vision is rapidly changing into reality. In India it has transformed governance and delivery of public services. It has unleashed innovation, hope and opportunities. It has empowered the weak and brought into mainstream those who were on the margins. It has made economy access more democratic. My government came to office in 2014 with a mission of inclusive development that would touch the lives of every citizen, the weakest in the remotest village. And mission needed a solid foundation of financial inclusion for all, a task that was not easy in a country of India's size. Yet, we wanted to achieve this in one, in a month, not years, that conventional vision suggested with the power of fintech and the reach of digital connectivity. We have started a revolution of historic speed and scale. To begin with the financial inclusion has become a reality for 1.3 billion Indians. Friends, we have generated more than 1.2 billion biometric identities called Aadhaar or foundation in just a few years. With our Jandhan Yojana, we aim to give a bank account to every Indian. In 3 years, we have opened 330 million new bank accounts. These are 330 million sources of identity, dignity and opportunity. Less than 50% of Indians had bank accounts in 2014, now it is nearly universal. So today, more than a billion biometric identities, more than a billion bank accounts and more than a billion cell phones give India by far the biggest public infrastructure in the world. More than 3.6 lakh crore rupees or 50 billion dollars of benefits from government have reached the people directly. No longer must a poor citizen in remote village travel long distance or pay off middle man to get her rights. No longer can fake and duplicate accounts, bleed government finances. We have saved about 90,000 crore rupees or 12 billion dollars in prevented leakage. Now millions who live on the age of uncertainty receive insurance in their accounts and have access to the security of pension in old age. A student can get her scholarship directly into her account. No longer will see the loss in endless paper change. It has come to doorsteps even in remote villages through 400,000 micro ATMs based on Aadha. And now this digital infrastructure has helped launch the world's largest healthcare scheme this year. Aishwarya Bharat will provide affordable health insurance to 500 million Indians. It has also helped us extend 145 million loans for small entrepreneurs through mudra scheme. In 4 years, they amount to 6.5 lakh crore rupees or 90 billion dollars, nearly 75 percent of these loans have gone to women. Just a few weeks ago, we launched the Indian Post payment banks. Over 150,000 post offices across India and 300,000 postal services employees are using technology to provide house to house banking. And of course, financial inclusion also needs digital connectivity. More than 120,000 village councils in India have already been connected by nearly 300,000 kilometres of fibre optic cables. Over 300,000 common service centres have brought digital access to villages. They give our farmers better access to land records, credit, insurance, market and the base price. They deliver health service and hygiene products to women. None of this would have been as effective without the other big change brought about by FinTech, the digitisation of payments and transactions in India. UPI is a nation of diverse circumstances and challenges. Our solutions must also be diverse. Our digitisation is a success because our payment products cater to everyone. For those with mobile and internet, the BEAM UPI is the world's most sophisticated, simple and seamless platform for payments between accounts using a virtual payment address. For those who have a mobile but not internet, there is U.S.S.D. system in 12 languages and for those who have neither mobile nor internet, there is Adhar-enabled payment system which uses biometrics. It has already registered a billion transaction and grown sixfold in two years. Rupay is bringing payment cards within the reach of all. Over 250 million of these are with those who did not have a bank account for years ago. From cards to cures and wallets, digital transactions in India are growing rapidly. Today, 128 banks in India are connected to UPI. Patients on UPI grew 1500 times in the last 24 months. Every month, the value of transaction is growing by over 30 percent. But more than the pace, I am inspired by the opportunities, efficiency, transparency and convenience that digital payment is generating. A shopkeeper can go online to reduce his inventory and speed up collections. For a fruit grover, a farmer or a rural artisan, the makers are direct and closer, earnings are higher and payments are faster. A worker collects wages or remits money home quickly without giving up a day's work. Every digital payment saves time. It adds to a huge national saving. It is increasing productivity of individuals and our economy. It has also improved tax collection and inject fairness in the economy. Even more digital payments are a gateway to a world of possibilities. Data analytics and artificial intelligence are helping us build a whole range of value-added services for people. This includes credit to those with little or no credit history. Friends, financial inclusion also extends to micro, small and medium enterprises. They are all coming on the nationwide groups and services track digital network launched just over a year ago. Businesses are reaching out to them with credit. Alternative lending platforms are offering innovative financing models. They no longer have to look at informal mortgages for credit at high interest rates. And just this month, we committed to approve loans up to one crore rupees or $150,000 for micro, small and medium enterprises within 59 minutes without even visiting a bank. This is driven by an algorithm that uses GST returns, income tax return and bank statements to make credit decisions. In just a few days, 150,000 such enterprises have come on board for loans. This is the power of fintech to drive enterprise employment and prosperity. Digital technology is introducing transparency and eliminating corruption through innovations such as the government e-market or gem. It is an integrated platform for purchase by government agencies. It provides everything, search and comparison, tender, online ordering, contract generation and payment. It already has 600,000 products, nearly 30,000 buyers organizations and more than 150,000 sellers and service providers are registered on this platform. Friends, there is an explosion of fintech innovation and enterprise in India. It has turned India into a leading fintech and startup nation in the world. The future of fintech and industry 4.0 is emerging in India. Our youth are developing apps that are making the dream of paperless, cashless, presence less and yet safe and secure transactions possible for all. That is a wonder of India's tech, simply the largest set of application programming interface in the world. They are using artificial intelligence, blockchain and machine learning to create solutions for banks, regulators and consumers and they are also embracing our nation's social missions from health and education to microcredit and insurance. This enormous talent pool in India benefits from the ecosystem created by initiatives such as Digital India and Startup India and by supportive policies, incentives and funding programs. It also helps that India has the largest data consumption in the world and the cheapest rates for data and one of the top nations in fintech adoption. So I say this to all the fintech companies and startups, India is your base destination. The economies of scale achieved in India by the LED bulb industry allowed this energy efficient technology to become more affordable globally. Likewise, India's vast market can enable fintech products to achieve scale, reduce risks and cost and grow global. France, in short, the Indian story shows six great benefits of fintech. Access, inclusion, connectivity, ease of living, opportunity and accountability. Because the world from the Indo-Pacific to Africa to Latin America we see inspiring stories of extraordinary innovation changing ordinary lives but there is much to be done. Our focus should be Sarvodaya, development of all through Antyodaya. That is development of the most marginalized. We must bring the unbanked 1.7 billion people in the world into the formal financial market. We must extend the security of insurance and pension to more than a billion workers in the informal sectors worldwide who still do not have it. We can use fintech to ensure that no dream remains unfulfilled and no enterprise remains still born because of lack of access to finance. We must make banks and financial institutions more resilient in managing risk, fighting frauds and dealing with disruption of traditional models. We have to use technology to improve compliance, regulation and supervision so that innovation flourishes and reeds are contained. We must use fintech tools to combat money laundering and other financial crimes. The emerging world of finance will succeed in our interconnected world when our data and system are trusted and secure. We have to make our globally wired system safe from cyber threats. We must also ensure that the space and the push of fintech work to the advantage of the people not to that disadvantage that technology in finance ensures improvement of the human condition through direct contact with the most marginalized. We also need to enhance awareness of the masses and educate them about the opportunities which inclusive policies and use of technology open up for them. For this, fintech will need to be not merely a mechanism but a movement and we have to address the inevitable questions. The data ownership and flow, privacy and consent, private and public good, law and ethics. Finally, we must invest in creating skills for the future and be prepared to back ideas and invest for the long term. Friends, each era it defined by its opportunities and challenges. Each generation has to responsibility to shape future. This generation will shape the future in the palm of every hand in the world. At no time in history, where we blaze with so many possibilities to make opportunities and prosperity a reality in a lifetime for billions, to make the world more human and equal between reach and power, between cities and villages, between hopes and achievements. Just as India will learn from others, we will share our experience and expertise with the world because what drives India also holds hope for others and what we dream for India is what we also wish for the world. This is a common journey for all. Like the festival of light that calls us to spread light over darkness, hope and happiness of despair, this festival calls us to come together in pursuit of a better future for humanity. Thank you, thank you very much. And thank you very much, Prime Minister Modi. May we now invite you to remain on stage to launch the API exchange. Can we also invite Deputy Prime Minister Tharman on stage to join Prime Minister Modi in launching the API exchange or APIX platform. Also joining us on stage are the leaders of the organizations responsible for making the APIX platform possible. We have Mr. Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief FinTech Officer of the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Welcome on stage. Next Mr. Vivek Patak, Regional Director, East Asia and Pacific of the International Finance Corporation. Last but not least, Mr. Paul Gui, Secretary General of the ASEAN Bankers Association. Special thanks to the leaders from the APIX consortium who are here with us today. Mr. Chris Kanakaratne, Chairman and CEO of Batusa, Mr. Robert Country, Global Leader of Global Financial Services Deloitte, Mr. Naveen Suri, CEO of Percipient and Mr. Mathias Kroner, CEO of Fedor. Now to launch APIX can we now invite Prime Minister Modi and Deputy Prime Minister Tharman too on my count of three, on my count of three to place your hand on the APEX or as a symbol of APEX's objectives to enhance financial innovation and inclusion for all on planet Earth. Are we ready? On my count and three, two, one. Advances in technology are democratizing access to digitalization, accelerating collaboration, innovation and social advancement. Financial institutions want to accelerate innovation to deliver better products to their customers. At the same time, fintech startups are looking to deliver their capabilities to more clients and in more markets. Introducing APIX, a platform that facilitates collaboration between financial institutions and fintechs to solve real world challenges, accelerate growth and deliver economic prosperity. The APIX platform delivers a digital infrastructure for financial industry participants to easily discover, freely design and rapidly deploy innovative solutions together. The platform's growing marketplace enables financial institutions to find fintechs from around the world that best fit their needs. Fintechs take advantage of the APIX sandbox to rapidly develop prototypes and bring it to financial institutions. APIX aims to boost cross-border reach and collaboration for all financial industry participants. Here's how. Hyper Verge, an India-based fintech startup, registered their OCR and Image Recognition API on the APIX marketplace. Effie Credit, a Vietnamese financial institution looking to enable self-onboarding for their SNAP loan app, discovered Hyper Verge on APIX. APIX is now enabling this collaboration. Active AI, a Singapore-based fintech startup exposed Trinity, its natural language processing AI engine on the APIX marketplace. One of India's leading private sector banks, Axis Bank, is now collaborating with Active AI to design a conversational interface to their UPI offering. The APIX platform is growing from strength to strength as its presence and adoption spreads across to more markets. The APIX marketplace enables fintechs to be discovered not only within their home countries but also by financial institutions around the world. APIX delivers the technology infrastructure necessary to drive collaboration that leads to better economic growth and improved financial inclusion. And congratulations on its momentous occasion as APIX is launched. Thank you very much, Prime Minister Modi. Thank you very much, Deputy Prime Minister Mitt Dhamman for launching the APIX platform and all APIX representatives for joining us on this occasion. Ladies and gentlemen, one more round of applause please for the launch of APIX on this momentous occasion. Prime Minister Modi and Deputy Prime Minister Dhamman will now take their leave. And APIX representatives, a big thank you to all our guests on stage and everyone, thank you so much for joining us for this APIX platform launch. We look forward to your participation in this exciting enterprise to deepen financial inclusion in Asia and beyond. Ladies and gentlemen, we will be back very shortly as we