FinTech must uphold constitution: Moatoshi

Advisor for Labour & Employment, Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, and Excise, Moatoshi Longkumer, on Saturday emphasized that financial technology (FinTech) must be evaluated through a constitutional lens, warning that systems built without equity and accountability risk becoming extractive rather than transformative.
Speaking as the special guest at the SAIARD–National Symposium on FinTech (NSF2026) held at Hotel Hindustan International, Kolkata, Longkumer lauded the South Asian Institute for Advanced Research and Development (SAIARD) for convening what he described as a timely and thoughtful policy dialogue.
He noted that financial systems, once created, shape societies for generations, regardless of changes in government or technology. Referring to the Indian Constitution, Longkumer stressed it represents an economic vision rooted in equity, dignity of labour, decentralised opportunity, and the State’s obligation to reduce structural inequality.
Longkumer urged that FinTech discussions must begin with a fundamental question: does technology expand equality of opportunity, or merely increase efficiency for those already included? He warned that technology ignoring this question risks becoming extractive rather than transformative.
He further highlightedIndia’s global leadership in digital public infrastructure, including UPI and interoperable digital platforms, and said that the country’s success lay in treating finance as a public good supported by private innovation, an architecture that demands careful and responsible stewardship.
On “FinTech and Viksit Bharat,” he cautioned against equating development solely with GDP growth or large infrastructure projects, emphasizing that true development ensures citizens participate in the economy with dignity, security, and predictability. He described FinTech as economic infrastructure, explaining that access to financial systems determines who can transact, save securely, access credit, and enter the formal economy.
Longkumerfurther asserted that the North-East must be viewed as central, not peripheral, to India’s FinTech journey, maintaining that the region presented a real-world stress test for digital finance due to low bank density, difficult terrain, high reliance on informal systems, and strong community-based trust structures.
“If digital finance can work reliably across villages, hills and informal livelihoods in the North-East, it can work anywhere” he stated, adding that development should not force migration to cities but enable prosperity where people already live.
Highlighting Nagaland’s unique constitutional and social context, the advisor said technology in the state should focus on transparency, traceability, and preventing illicit activity, strengthening public trust and governance.
Concluding his address, Longkumer said the true character of a financial system is revealed not during periods of growth, but in times of stress such as job loss, crop failure, or health emergencies.“If FinTech can cushion shocks rather than amplify them, support livelihoods rather than extract data, and build trust rather than dependency, then it will have fulfilled not just an economic role, but a constitutionalpromise”, he said.