BT Brainstorm: 'India not alone in grappling with crypto', says ex-SBI boss

Former SBI chairman and veteran banker Rajnish Kumar said in a conversation with Business Today TV's Siddharth Zarabi that India is not the only country that is faced with the challenges that cryptocurrency brings along with it. "We are not the only country in the world that is grappling with this new animal called cryptocurrency," he said.
 
He also added that with central bank digital currency, or CBDC, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) should eliminate intermediary nodes in monetary transactions. Kumar further said that doing this will usher in efficiency even in offline transactions.
 
While Kumar expounded on how the central bank can ensure efficiency in online and offline transactions, Senior Supreme Court advocate Gopal Jain said that the problem with India's legislation, especially the law around crypto, is that we usually bring out legislation in "a very reactive manner".
 
He said this is because even though technological advancements are fast paced, law and regulation is not. “Technology brings transformative changes and law and regulation unfortunately is not as fast paced so it is always trying to play catch up. Having said that, India usually brings regulation in a very reactive manner. You gave the example of crypto,” Jain explained.
 
Jain added that the country needs "a booster shot to the legislation process at a Vishwanathan Anand speed that is rapid and exponential." He also noted that we need a new regulator for specialised areas like crypto education and there should be no gap in proposing and debating legislations of this nature so that financial trends can be predicted in advance because businesses and law and regulation need to align cohesively and a situation of collision between the two is highly avoidable.
 
“Very important to have a legislative framework in mind and policies because now we have crypto already deeply entrenched both in terms of users and exchanges in order to be able to provide certainty and clarity in a roadmap particularly for the users’ community all of whom may have some form of crypto assets so there’s suspense so we could do away with it,” the veteran Supreme Court lawyer explained on the crypto law.
 
Jain also stated, “There was a talk of a bill which was to be introduced but it’s not come which is why I strongly believe, as I said, these are areas which require a clear legislative framework.” 

He said that each stakeholder needs to have “upfront clarity” about the crypto space and that the government should make all efforts to quell uncertainty regarding the same. 

He further noted that classifying into sectors becomes easier once there is a clear legislative framework, while adding that India probably has the second largest users of crypto and the number of crypto users continue to grow at an “exponential rate”.
 
Chairman and CEO of Droom Sandeep Aggarwal said that the government should give “full benefit of doubt” to new and emerging industries and entrepreneurs. “On crypto also, I would say that you know look until the rules and regulations are not there, we should not be assuming that something is just here and it’s smoking guns and it’s going to bring the entire financial sector or for that matter any other sector to a standstill.”

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