Promotion of Digital Payment: Most Important Topic for 2023 NET, IAS, State-SET (KSET, WBSET, MPSET, etc.), GATE, CUET, Olympiads etc.

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  • Digital payment has been launched with the express intention of spreading awareness on digital cash, & also to spread popularity of BHIM՚s barcode-based merchant payment mode with merchants and traders at large. This launch has two components.
  • An SMS application which operates from NIC՚s SMS Gateway on a special Short-code service allotted for this purpose by DoT with the number “14444” . Citizens will receive SMS messages which are pre-approved by experts & the response messages will be made available for further action, analysis & research. The Government proposes initially to pay for the citizen՚s response so as to promote citizen՚s engagement & make the awareness program completely free for the citizen.
  • A Mobile application version of digital cash, which can be accessed & used by smart phone users. This app can perform many more function beyond chat, offers audio-video tutorials etc.
  • The initiative aims to enable citizen government dialogue & engage citizens in educational and outreach programmes. With the mobile phone as its interface, digital cash՚s content & communication style is interactive & adaptive. The same message can be used to interact with both smart phone and feature phone users.
  • It can engage the user over multiple channels in a 2-way interaction, using different content styles (stories, images, videos, discussions and polls) in different languages. Digital cash has been launched to spread awareness amongst the common public on digital payment topics such as BHIM, Aadhar Enabled Payment Systems (AePS) , Bharat QR, & Security Do՚s & don՚ts to begin with.
Illustration: Promotion of Digital Payment: Most Important Topic for 2023 NET, IAS, State-SET (KSET, WBSET, MPSET, Etc.) , GATE, CUET, Olympiads Etc

India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) to Enable Digital Payments in Post Offices by April 2018

  • India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) Expansion Programme continues to make brisk progress & a nation-wide roll-out is scheduled beginning April 2018. No decision has been taken to revise the timelines as reported in some sections of the media on Tuesday, 06th February 2018.
  • Once the proposed expansion is completed, IPPB will be providing the largest financial inclusion network in the country, covering both urban as well as rural hinterland with ability to provide digital payment services at the doorstep with the help of Postmen & Gramin Dak Sewaks (GDS) . IPPB will also enable more than 17 crore active account-holders of Post Office Savings Bank to make interoperable digital payments including the benefit of NEFT, RTGS, UPI & bill payment services.
  • Additionally, the IPPB will enable acceptance of digital payments across post offices in the country in line with the digital payments initiative of the government.

Digital Payment Revolution: Facts & Figures

  • Lucky Grahak Yojana & DigiDhan Vyapar Yojana launched on 25.12. 2016
  • 100 Digi Dhan Melas held in 100 cities all over the country.
  • 100 day long information, education & communication campaign led by NITI Aayog to make digital payments a mass movement in India.
  • At least 15,000 institutions have gone cashless across just these 100 rural & urban cities across each one of the 27 states and 7 UTs.
  • With a turnout of over 15 lakh from cities, small towns & villages, the melas have enabled lakhs to open new bank accounts as well as create new Aadhaar cards.
  • ₹ 258 crore of prize money won by 16 lakh winners, including customers & merchants belonging to different corners of the country & from varied walks of life.
  • The lucky winners of the Mega Draw felicitated by the Prime Minister in Nagpur.
  • BHIM App & QR Codes launched
  • BHIM App has already created a new world record by registering 1.9 crore downloads in just four months since its launch in December, 2016.
  • India has seen an unprecedented increase in number of transactions made using several user-friendly digital payment methods viz. UPI, USSD, AePS.
  • Volume of all digital transactions increased by about 23 times with 63,80, 000 digital transactions for a value of ₹ 2425 crore in March 2017 compared to 2,80, 000 digital transactions worth ₹ 101 crore till November 2016.
  • Aadhaar Enabled Payments have increased from 2.5 crore in November 2016 to over 5 crore in March 2017.
  • Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) transactions have also increased from 3.6 crore to 6.7 crore during the same period.
  • BHIM-Aadhaar, the merchant interface of the BHIM App
  • It will pave the way for making digital payments by using the Aadhaar platform.
  • Any Indian citizen can pay digitally using their biometric data like their thumb imprint on a merchants՚ biometric enabled device which could be smart phone having a biometric reader.
  • Any citizen without access to smart phones, internet, debit or credit cards will be able to transact digitally through the BHIM Aadhaar platform.
  • 27 major banks are now working with 7.15 lakh merchants so that they can start accepting payments using BHIM Aadhaar.

Onboarding

  • Total Onboarding (including syndicate update) : 7.15 lakhs, Transactions: 12.62 lakh
  • Aadhar: 1.75 Lakh
  • BHIM/UPI 4.79 lakh
  • QR Code: 1.68 lakh
  • BHIM – Cash back & Referral Bonus Schemes
  • To ensure that the culture of digital payments permeates down to the grassroots.
  • Under the Referral bonus scheme both the existing user who refers BHIM and the new user who adopts BHIM would get a cash bonus credited directly to their account.
  • Under the Cashback scheme the merchants will get a cash back on every transaction using BHIM.
  • Both schemes are to be administered by MEITY and implemented by NPCI.
  • Outlay of ₹ 495 crore for a period of six months.
  • 75 Townships declared Less Cash Townships
  • In order to achieve the target of 2500 crore digital transactions during the current financial year, the Prime Minister announced about 75 townships spread all over India as ‘less-cash townships’ .
  • A less-cash township is one where the deployment of payment acceptance infrastructure is complete, all the families in the township are covered under training programs.
  • Selected townships on the basis of third party assessment by Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC)
  • Townships with more than 80% of the total number of transactions being done through digital modes of payments during the review period are included in this list.
  • These townships are likely to generate over 1.5 lakh digital transactions every day thereby leading to about 5.5 crore digital transactions in a year.