By Sekhar Seshan. Consulting Editor, Business India

The distinction between money and data is blurring at a fast pace, says Partha Ray, professor of economics, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM-C) and co-director in charge of a newly-introduced advanced programme in global economy and digital money. According to him, “Digitalisation, which is already happening at a massive scale and speed, will be fuelled further by the emergence of central bank digital currencies. The post-pandemic global economy could usher in a new normal. We aim to teach professionals and decision makers how to harness these techno-economic disruptions to drive superior outcomes in terms of growth, profitability and policy.”

“Building a solid understanding of the digital economy and the future of money is now critical for anyone who needs to prepare for a disrupted world economic order and a rapidly evolving regulatory landscape,” adds Santanu Paul, co-founder, CEO and MD, TalentSprint, a Hyderabad-headquartered education technology company, which has designed the programme.

This is ‘precisely the right moment’, he says, for this programme, which aims to help finance and investment professionals, business leaders, policy makers, regulators and economists to understand the impact of rapid digitalisation and emergence of central bank digital currencies on the global economy. TalentSprint, an innovation partner for the National Skill Development Corporation, is also implementing similar courses for the Indian Institutes of Technology in Kanpur, Bengaluru and Hyderabad as well as the Indian Institute of Information Technology in Hyderabad.

 Digital currencies

Over the last century, digitalisation has led to significant changes in the global economy. The thinning of economic borders leads to events in one country impacting other countries, leading to the rapid expansion of the global supply chain of economic activities. The corona virus pandemic is speeding up the forces of digitalisation, though the forces of globalisation may appear to be decelerating in the short term, Paul feels. The disruption of existing market structures and realignment of modern global trade and capital flows has brought in the fear that banknotes may no longer be safe from a public health perspective. Enter digital currencies, which are gaining increased regulatory attention. 

The third executive programme TalentSprint, for which it is partnering IIM Calcutta, is a six-month course being delivered in hybrid executive format, with live interactive online sessions via the former’s digital platform iPearl.ai. It aims to empower 1,000-plus professionals to be ready for the 21st century’s digital economy. The earlier two programmes were FinTech and AI-powered market.