Infosys’ Nandan Nilekani not launching crypto project, calls post ‘fake news’

In December last year, Nilekani had said that crypto assets were worth considering and could be used to bring in more financial inclusion.

Harshit Sabarwal | Edited Sohini Goswami, New Delhi

Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani has denied launching a crypto project. Taking to Twitter on Tuesday, Nilekani wrote, “You may have encountered a post on various social media platforms claiming that I have launched a crypto project. This is #fakenews!”He urged people to avoid clicking on the social media post and report it as misleading or false information on the platform where they see it.
You may have encountered a post on various social media platforms claiming that I have launched a crypto project. This is #fakenews! Please avoid clicking on it and report it as misleading/false information on the platform where you see it.— Nandan Nilekani (@NandanNilekani) February 15, 2022
Minutes before the above tweet, Nilekani shared a photo of his phone’s home screen on Twitter and said that he only has essential applications which do not include messaging platform WhatsApp.“No WhatsApp. No notification badges. Only essential apps,” he wrote on the microblogging site on Monday.

The Infosys co-founder has been vocal about bringing in cryptocurrencies in the country.In December last year, Nilekani had said that crypto assets were worth considering and could be used to bring in more financial inclusion.”There is a role for crypto as assets but they obviously will have to follow all the laws and make sure that it doesn’t become a backdoor for money laundering… they have to use that (as) an entry point to get a lot of young people into financial markets,” Nilekani had said at the Reuters Next Conference on December 1.In this year’s Union budget, finance miner Nirmala Sitharaman announced a crypto tax of 30 per cent on all digital assets. In her budget speech on February 1, Sitharaman said that gains from trading in cryptocurrencies and related assets such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) will be taxed at 30 per cent, adding there will be 1 per cent tax deducted at source (TDS) on payments made for the transfer of digital assets.Crypto players have welcomed the above decision pointing out that India is on the path to legitimising the crypto sector.Meanwhile, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das has said that cryptocurrency is a big threat to the country’s macroeconomic and financial stability and also cautioned investors who are putting in money in this medium.“I have earlier said that those investors who are investing in cryptocurrency should keep in mind that they are doing it at their own risk,” Das said last week.

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