Digital Payments in India : Background, Trends and Opportunities

Payment systems form the backbone of an economy. The spectacular growth in financial transactions has necessitated certain radical changes in the payment systems around the world. The technological revolution in the field of electronics and telecommunications has helped to bring about sophisticated developments in the payment systems in many countries. What seemed futuristic a couple of decades ago is pedestrian now. A well-defined payment system is, therefore, a crucial component of the financial infrastructure of a country. India has been enjoying a very healthy evolution of payment systems. This has been the result of a calibrated approach adopted by the Reserve Bank of Indiain the initial years as a developer, and in later years as a catalyst and facilitator. Presently, Indias payment systems are not only comparable to systems anywhere in the world, but are standards for other emerging economies to emulate. According to a survey conducted by The Economist Intelligence Unit for the year 2018, India is taking rapid strides in advancing e-payment capabilities and is one of the top-performing countries in terms of citizen-to-government (C2G), business-to-government (B2G) and government-to-business (G2B) transactions. In the 73-country survey, Indias overall ranking on the governments adoption of e-payments moved up to 28th in 2018, from 36th in 2011. The country holds top ranking on B2G and G2B, and comes third on C2G, jointly with Argentina. National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is the mainstay of payment systems and its proximate objective is to provide convenient anytime-anywhere payment services that are secure and easy-to-use. Not many people and organizations, both within the country and abroad, are aware of the payment systems existing in India. This book is an informative and descriptive document on the subject.