Infosys Co-founder Nandan Nilekani rejects news of crypto launch; calls it a fake news

Infosys Co-founder Nandan Nilekani has rejected the news claiming that he has launched a crypto project. The Non-executive Chairman of India's second largest IT company informed about this via a tweet from his official twitter handle. Nilekani called it a fake news and urged people not to click on any report or false/misleading information. 

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"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," Nilekani tweeted from his official Twitter handle.

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

Nilekani earlier said that crypto assets are worth considering and can be used to bring more financial inclusion, as per a Reuters report on December 1, 2021.

"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 lot of young people into financial markets," Nilekani had then said.

He had added, "If we have a very well regulated and legal, lawful crypto market, not as currency but as assets, and a lot of young people build innovative applications around that then these young people could create a wave of global companies."
The Reuters report further stated that India has 15 million to 20 million crypto investors according to industry estimates with total crypto holdings of around Rs 400 billion.

One must also note in this regard that in the recently announced Union Budget 2022, giving clarity on taxation of cryptocurrencies and other virtual assets, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed a 30 per cent tax on income from transactions in such assets.