Skip to main content

To Gain Currency, Govt's Payments Platforms to come in New Avatars

By
UPI, USSD to be revamped; UPI transactions double to 70k, NPCI wants faster growth
The Centre plans to breathe new life into two key initiatives that can help further its aim of transforming India into a digital economy . The United Payment Interface (UPI) and Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) will soon be launched in new avatars that will make it easier for consumers to transact digitally either with or without an Internet connection.
In a week's time, a new strippeddown, easier-to-use application for UPI will be launched, that among other things will feature a single app that users can downlo ad to transact across multiple banks. Also being launched is an upgraded, feature-rich version of USSD platform, which enables banking through feature phones.
Since the demonetisation drive announced on November 8, the number of daily transactions on the UPI platform has “doubled to 70,000 with 4.2 million registered users“, according to AP Hota, MD of NPCI which hosts the two platforms and handles all retail payments in the country . “But we are not very happy. 70,000 is not really a number to be satisfied with. We believe that in the days ahead, further improvement can happen,“ National Payments Corporation of India MD AP Hota told ET.
The adoption of UPI, launched in August, has been hamstrung, among other things, by the lack of a common application. So far, about 33 banks have signed up on the platform and each has its own application, which users can download individually off the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store. The new version will provide a common application that will simplify the use of the platform.
“In due course, when more functionalities are added, we hope that instead of upgrading their individual apps, banks may switch over to the common app,“ said Hota.
The new app, however, won't replace the existing ones. It will be in the form of a skeletal version of the apps already present, with basic features such as ability to send or receive money, linking of accounts, saving profile of the user, changing the language, recording beneficiary details and providing balance enquiry. Banks can either endorse the common app or only allow their customers to use the in-house app which may be loaded with more features.
Industry watchers argue that while a common UPI app will increase convenience, a lot more needs to be done to popularise the platform. “It needs to be opened for prepaid instruments firms aut horised by RBI, since banks are not exactly the best examples of marketing,“ said Vishwas Patel, chief executive officer of CCAvenues, a payment gateway.
RISE IN USSD TRANSACTIONS

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Household debt up, but India still lags emerging-market economies: RBI

By
  Although household debt in India is rising, driven by increased borrowing from the financial sector, it remains lower than in other emerging-market economies (EMEs), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its Financial Stability Report. It added that non-housing retail loans, largely taken for consumption, accounted for 55 per cent of total household debt.As of December 2024, India’s household debt-to-gross domestic product ratio stood at 41.9 per cent. “...Non-housing retail loans, which are mostly used for consumption purposes, formed 54.9 per cent of total household debt as of March 2025 and 25.7 per cent of disposable income as of March 2024. Moreover, the share of these loans has been growing consistently over the years, and their growth has outpaced that of both housing loans and agriculture and business loans,” the RBI said in its report.Housing loans, by contrast, made up 29 per cent of household debt, and their growth has remained steady. However, disaggregated data sho...
Post a Comment
Read more

External spillovers likely to hit India's financial system: RBI report

By
  While India’s growth remains insulated from global headwinds mainly due to buoyant domestic demand, the domestic financial system could, however, be impacted by external spillovers, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its half yearly Financial Stability Report published on Monday.Furthermore, the rising global trade disputes and intensifying geopolitical hostilities could negatively impact the domestic growth outlook and reduce the demand for bank credit, which has decelerated sharply. “Moreover, it could also lead to increased risk aversion among investors and further corrections in domestic equity markets, which despite the recent correction, remain at the high end of their historical range,” the report said.It noted that there is some build-up of stress, primarily in financial markets, on account of global spillovers, which is reflected in the marginal rise in the financial system stress indicator, an indicator of the stress level in the financial system, compared to its p...
Post a Comment
Read more

Retail inflation cools to a six-year low of 2.82% in May on moderating food prices

By
  New Delhi: Retail inflation in India cooled to its lowest level in over six years in May, helped by a sharp moderation in food prices, according to provisional government data released Thursday.Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based inflation eased to 2.82% year-on-year, down from 3.16% in April and 4.8% in May last year, data from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) showed. This marks the fourth consecutive month of sub-4% inflation, the longest such streak in at least five years.The data comes just days after the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Monetary Policy Committee cut the repo rate by 50 basis points to 5.5%, its third straight cut and a cumulative reduction of 100 basis points since the easing cycle began in February. The move signals a possible pivot from inflation control to supporting growth.Food inflation came in at just 0.99% in May, down from 1.78% in April and a sharp decline from 8.69% a year ago.A Mint poll of 15 economists had projected CPI ...
Post a Comment
Read more