The currents shaping the relationship between the Indo-Pacific’s two largest democracies are not trade winds but terabits flowing through fiber-optic cables and the instant signals of digital payments. Jakarta and New Delhi are forging a landmark digital alliance—one that goes beyond technology. At the heart of this digital handshake lies the plan to link Indonesia’s BI-Fast with India’s Unified Payments Interface.

Claude Lopez, Director, International Finance and Macroeconomics Research, Milken Institute, spoke to Gateway House on how innovation in the financial sector does not come from finance, but from technology, and the private sector ought to take the lead in regulating the instruments of tomorrow