Anupam Pahuja on the jobs that will define India’s future

With half of its population under 25 and the unemployment rate at four-decade high, India faces an uncertain future. The question on young people’s minds: what kinds of jobs will we have? Quartz asked leaders across India’s biggest industries about that one job in their company or field that will be the most crucial in the coming decades.

From physical banking to providing contactless solutions such as digital wallets, the Indian financial services sector has undergone a sea change in recent times. The policy framework, too, has evolved to accommodate more payments banks, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), and small finance banks. The government-backed Unified Payments Interface (UPI) now fulfills more digital payments in India than cards and net banking. With growth in digital banking, roles that involve mitigating risk, managing cyber security, and ensuring privacy will gain prominence. Many banks have already started appointing chief risk officers.

Anupam Pahuja, the managing director of PayPal India, told Quartz:

Digital payments are on the rise and innovations support their growth at every step—we are at the precipice of the next revolution in payments. PayPal is working towards our goal of democratizing financial services. To further this ambition, we need a global team of employees that reflects the communities where we work and live, along with those of the customers we serve in over 200 markets across the globe.

As trust is at the core of everything we do, one of the most critical roles will be that of customer experience strategist. This job would be to ensure that our company empowers our customers to make secure and frictionless transactions through cutting-edge technology. This, in turn, will help us better serve our customers in a rapidly changing ecosystem, as well as bring us closer to achieving our vision of financial inclusion.