Union information and technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on the World Economic Forum stage spoke about India’s digital payments revolution and how the country has made great strides in fintech-driven solutions.
Speaking at a panel discussion, he highlighted the scale at which the acceptance of digital payments has risen. “Last December 2022, the digital payment transactions amounted to Rs 1.5 trillion (annualised basis). If you compare the total of US digital transactions, in the UK, Germany and France. Combine the four and multiply by four, it’s more than that,” he said at the ongoing WEF.
Digital Payments transactions have been consistently increasing over the last few years, as a part of the Government of India’s strategy to digitise the financial sector and economy. Further, concerted efforts have been made to promote financial inclusion as one of the important national objectives of the country.
On the governance side, too, recent years have seen a technological revolution in India. Government services have been slowly and steadily bringing on board and today, last-mile delivery happens with the click of a mouse in seconds.
The major enablers at the centre of India’s transformed digital payment landscape is the JAM Trinity – Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and Mobile.
UPI:
Launched in 2016, it has emerged as one of the most popular tools in the country for carrying out digital transactions. UPI is an instant payment system developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). It powers multiple bank accounts into a single mobile application, merging several banking features, seamless fund routing and merchant payments into one hood.
On January 11, 2023, Union Cabinet approved the incentive scheme with a financial outlay of Rs 26 billion for the promotion of RuPay Debit Cards and low-value BHIM-UPI transactions (P2M) for 2022-23. (ANI)
