Nandan Nilekani, Co-Founder and Chairman of Infosys, on Thursday congratulated the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on its Unified Payments Interface (UPI) campaign. On Monday, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das unveiled the ‘Har Payment Digital’ mission, which is focused on RBI’s goal of enabling every individual in India to embrace digital payments.
Praising RBI’s efforts and innovations, Nilekani said the central bank has been doing a perfect job by balancing regulation and innovation.
Many congratulations to the @RBI @RBIsays on its landmark #harpaymentdigital campaign! The RBI has always been at the forefront of balancing regulation and innovation. pic.twitter.com/TGYXHEU6Cu
The Digital Payments Awareness Week, which will be on from March 6 to March 12, is focusing on ‘Digital Payment Apnao, Auron ko bhi Sikhao,’, which means adopt digital payments and also teach others to do the same.
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The RBI in its statement said that digital payments offer a range of benefits, including speed, convenience, safety, and security. While digital payment infrastructure has made digital payments available and accessible, the RBI aims to create more awareness to enhance adoption.
RBI governor Das said to keep up with the rapid adoption, banks and payment service providers need to raise their digital transaction capacities substantially to keep pace with the trend and the National Payments Corp of India (NPCI), which has built capacities that could handle nearly four times the transactions it processes now.
“The UPI currently handles 26 crore transactions a day. It has the capacity to handle 100 crore transactions a day,” Das said on Monday.
In value terms, the UPI transactions are worth Rs 6.27 lakh crore, registering a growth of 17 per cent from Rs 5.36 lakh crore in February 2022, the RBI governor said.
In terms of volume, the number of UPI transactions exceeded 800 crore in January 2023, while NEFT (National Electronic Funds Transfer) witnessed the highest ever daily volume of 3.18 crore transactions on February 28, as per the latest NPCI data.
He added: “Our payment systems are talked about globally and several countries have shown interest to replicate our success story. It is a matter of pride that our payment systems have witnessed over 1,000 crore transactions every month since December 2022. This speaks volumes of the robustness of our payments ecosystem and acceptance by consumers. A recent pan-India digital payments survey revealed that 42 per cent of respondents have used digital payments.”
The RBI has been giving a big push to digitisation and is on a mission to take the UPI model globally. It has already facilitated payments through the UPI interface with Singapore.
Das said that the India-Singapore model had been well received and it could well be extended beyond the Southeast Asian nation
Governor Das further said that while the UPI has facilitated digital payments to retail outlets, kiranas, street vendors etc, the Bharat bill payment system (BBPS) has ensured migration of bill payments from cash/cheques to digital mode and the national electronic toll collection (NETC) system has helped in migration of the toll payments to digital mode with enhancing efficiency in terms of reduced waiting time at toll plazas.
The national automated clearing house (NACH) system has also facilitated the direct benefit transfers (DBT) payments digitally and eliminating leakages in the system.
Besides, RBI has announced the launch of the ‘75 Digital Villages’ programme, as part of the observation of 75 years of Indian Independence. As part of this initiative, payment system operators (PSOs) will adopt 75 villages nationwide and transform them into digital payment-enabled villages.
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