Chapter 20: A Study on the Digital Economy and Recent Trends of Digitalization in India with Respect to the Nordic Region

“Digital India” was launched by the Government of India in July 2015, with a vision of transforming India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. India's momentum toward digitalization took a swift pace after the demonetization of currency notes of 500 and 1,000 rupees. The government stressed the use of digitalized payments through apps that use UPI (Unified Payment Interface) and Core Banking System to move the banking sector toward a more digitalized system. The Nordic countries, on the other hand, had a developed digitalized system from the late 1990s and in the present context, they are in paramount positions in terms of global digitalized economies. In recent times Nordic countries like Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland have performed overwhelmingly in terms of Digital Economy and Social Index (DESI). The Internet penetration in India and the use of mobile phones in the country is compared with the Nordic countries, trying to present the comparative advantage in those countries.