India Fintech Festival postponed due to coronavirus outbreak

The coronavirus outbreak has resulted in the Union and Maharashtra governments on Wednesday deciding to postpone the 'India Fintech Festival', scheduled to take place early next month. The festival, which aims to establish the financial capital as an important centre for the upcoming financial technologies stream, was scheduled to take place between March 4-6.

No new dates have been announced by the organisers. The organisers for the event include the Union Government's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of Maharashtra and the city-headquartered National Payments Corporation of India.

Earlier, private sector brokerage Kotak had pushed ahead its investor conference because of coronavirus outbreak. "After careful consideration of the safety of all participants, out of abundant precaution, the organising committee has taken the difficult decision to postpone the event to a more suitable time," the organisers said in a statement.

It said the organisers have been getting queries from foreign delegates, speakers and exhibitors after travel advisories were issued to foreign nationals by their country and in some cases by their respective organisations. Over 150 speakers and 4,000 attendees had confirmed their presence at the conference, and invitations were extended to delegates from 25 countries.

It can be noted that the World Health Organisation has declared a global emergency after the outbreak of coronavirus in China. The city of Wuhan is the epicentre of the outbreak.

The death toll from the coronavirus epidemic in China crossed the 2,000-mark on Wednesday with the death of 136 more people, while the overall confirmed cases climbed to 74,185, authorities said.