NEW DELHI: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday urged fintech startups to work out solutions to prevent digital arrests and cyber frauds. Speaking at the Digital Payments Awards ceremony 2025, the FM said “deep fake” is doing a lot of damage and there is a need to address the issue.“Today, we should take care of addressing them, so we need a set of fintech companies which are constantly working to give solutions for the newer challenges,” said Sitharaman.The FM said nearly Rs 44 lakh crore was transferred through the Direct Benefit Transfer since 2014 with full transparency while saving about Rs 3.5 lakh crore by removing leakages. “It is a credit to technology which drives govt policy and bank functions,” said Sitharaman while applauding the role played by technology and fintech companies.She said that every fintech firm should view rural India as a fertile ground – not just as a social responsibility but as an opportunity to create new markets. The FM said fintech innovations have the potential to become global public goods that can benefit other emerging and developed economies, and this will open up new markets for the country’s fintech firms.She mentioned that international merchant payments through UPI are now accepted at select merchant outlets in seven countries – Bhutan, France, Mauritius, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and UAE. “Our players must aim to export our successful models abroad and capture global markets. We have the talent, we have the market scale, and we have the proven solutions,” said the FM.Sitharaman said the fintech revolution will further flourish, and the country’s market is projected to grow to over $400 billion by 2028-29, reflecting an annual growth of over 30%. “The scale of opportunity is immense. I firmly believe that its best chapters are yet to be written,” said the FM.