PNS|Hyderabad
National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) COO Praveena Rai said on Wednesday that India would be a cashless economy in the next five years.
Addressing a gathering at HYSEA Summit, Rai said: “When we speak of NPCI products, there are flagship products such as UPI, including the debit cards and credit cards, and the Aadhaar identification system. We are providing national infrastructure for various modes of payment.”
“UPI is currently a major source of payments. For instance,RuPay is on par with the number of international cards. While other payment gateways are driven by technology, RuPay is driven by technology and customer experience integration,” the COO added.
“A lot of people think of RuPay as one of the better card schemes. All the payment gateways are given their respective due and, in some way, they compete with the best models,” she said.
On UPI transactions, Rai said, “It became popular among people a few years ago. We must look at what are the various mechanisms to attract more users on UPI.” “There are atleast 104 million users who could be brought on UPI currently,” she added. “At present there are card users, UPI users, and the assisted users. Aadhaar could be used as an on-boarding mechanism which could attract a large number of users,” Rai said. “There is a product called 123 Pay which lets people use their phone number or UPI number to make payments.”
“There is a need to bring in conversational payments to assist those who arenot literate,” Rai suggested. Shedding light on the estimated day-to-day UPI payments, she said: “The total number of digital payment users ranges from 300-400 million. There are atleast 30 transactions through UPI on a daily basis.”
“The NPCI aims to reduce the number of hard cash withdrawals by bringing them on UPI,” she added. “There are a large number of consumers who prefer UPI; however, they are hesitant to make large transactions through that mode. Also, there is the craze for earning loyalty points on credit cards.” Rai said.
