Bhim: India’s ticket to a cashless economy

Converting the promise of the online payments app into digital dividends for India will require a concerted effort

The country seems to be on a train to cashless, and the Unified Payments Interface (UPI)—the payment system that allows mobile-enabled money transfer between bank accounts —seems to be the ticket to ride. While many banks have launched UPI apps, the Bharat Interface for Money (Bhim), the common app that can be used by anyone who has a bank account with a linked mobile number, is seen as the most promising. From the Prime Minister (PM) to district magistrates (DMs), everyone in government seems to be promoting Bhim—the PM invoking it in his Mann Ki Baat radio programme, and reportedly recently asking smartphone manufacturers to pre-install the app in phones; and DMs conducting “Digi-Dhan Melas” to push its adoption.

But can Bhim really be India’s ticket to a cashless economy? Our research with users (and potential users) of Bhim across four states in India suggests that it has a lot going for it, but ensuring mass adoption will require important product tweaks and a carefully executed go-to-market strategy to make the app go viral.

Bhim provides a smartphone front-end to make bank-to-bank payments. The beauty of the app lies in its simplicity—it’s “light” (2MB), has an uncluttered and simple user-interface (UI), and the transaction experience is fast. It also works on basic phones (*99#). Our research suggests that contrary to the perception of many payment apps, most users consider transactions on Bhim to be “safe” because it has government backing. And combining the superior user experience (UX) with UPI’s low transaction cost (currently free for both payers and payees), means that we finally have a payments app that can genuinely compete with cash on both convenience and price. This is especially attractive for small merchants, who need to do multiple quick small-ticket transactions and are wary of “going digital” given their razor-thin margins.

But scaling up will require more. On the product front, our research shows that less tech-savvy users struggle at different stages of the on-boarding process and are tripped up by the jargon (“passcode”, “UPI PIN”, “VPA”, etc.) There is a clear need for greater guidance and handholding through the on-boarding process, and in helping a user make the first transaction.

On the marketing front, a targeted go-to-market strategy is needed to convert the initial interest and impressive number of downloads (about 18 million) into active use. The secret sauce will be to get “network effects” (or the “WhatsApp effect”), i.e., people start using a platform because others in their network use it.

So what exactly needs to be done? There are five specific asks to ensure Bhim can scale.

First, make on-boarding simpler and guided: Given the challenges faced by less tech-savvy users in on-boarding, having a simple guided flow on each screen that walks users through the process, will help. Once a user has on-boarded, the home screen could provide a guided flow explaining how to transact, or the opportunity to do a first test transaction. A short video may be embedded in the app explaining key features, on-boarding, and first use.

Second, quickly launch incentive schemes. The finance minister in his budget speech announced two schemes for promoting Bhim—a referral scheme and a merchant cash-back scheme. We think these schemes have great potential if designed well. We recommend a simple design (for example, using the mobile number as the referral code) and including in-app notifications and nudges (for example, messages like “Congratulations, you have just earned Rs100, next goal: Rs500!”). The reward money should be transferred to the user’s bank account as soon as possible to capitalize on the “instant gratification” effect.

Third, drive behaviour change by targeting the right transactions. Payments is a classic “network effect” phenomenon. Research has shown that focusing efforts to drive transactions that are pervasive (affecting a large number of people) and repetitive (low-value, high-frequency) can lead to quick adoption. Our analysis of household spending in India narrows this to five transactions—payments at kirana stores, pharmacies, public distribution system outlets, public transport, and remittances. These five transactions account for about Rs22 trillion in annual spending (about 45% share of the household wallet) across approximately 100 billion transactions. Therefore, a concerted effort to drive these transactions by doing a concerted campaign to bring merchants such as kirana store owners, pharmacists, auto/taxi drivers on Bhim, for example, will be the holy grail to get scale. This can be done through targeted campaigns (mass-media, feet-on-street efforts, etc.) that narrowly focuses on these segments, with simple messaging around “Why Bhim” (key advantages), “How to use it” (step-by-step guidance) and “Why start now” (incentives offered).

Fourth, ensure Bhim is accepted in key payment networks, especially those backed by government entities. The Metals and Minerals Trading Corporation of India recently became the first public sector unit to accept payments through Bhim. A similar push is needed across other networks in the government’s ambit where many users transact daily: Petrol pumps, Indian Railways, city public transport systems, India Post, government hospitals, etc., should all become Bhim acceptors, quickly, for both online and offline transactions, and ideally offer a discount as compared to cash.

Fifth, nudge banks to promote Bhim uptake in its existing customer base. There are about 740 million debit cards in India but only about 18 million people have downloaded Bhim. Banks could be mandated to take steps to increase this penetration rate. This could be done through an SMS campaign for customers around Bhim and posters at each bank and ATM branch that detail the key benefits, essentials to get on-boarded, and the registration process.

Bhim holds great potential to help realize India’s vision of a cashless economy at the household level, and the building blocks are clearly in place. But well begun is (only) half done. Converting the digital promise of Bhim into a digital dividend for India will require a concerted effort.

1984: India’s space odyssey

1984: India’s space odyssey
Thirty-three years on, Rakesh Sharma remains the only Indian cosmonaut to have embarked on that journey
On 3 April 1984, Rakesh Sharma, a 35-year-old fighter pilot in the Indian Air Force, embarked on a quest that would go on to define his life. He travelled to space and discovered that the universe is much more beautiful than the images which had been recorded till then.
When he returned to India, having spent eight days aboard the Russian Salyut 7 orbital space station, he was often asked by fans if he had met God up there.
Sharma, of course, only had answers relating to science and space travel—biomedical experiments designed to gain an insight into the working of the human cardiovascular system in microgravity, experiments on Earth’s resources for future use, and in the domain of materials science. “The flight itself was an opportunity grasped by the scientific community to carry out research in an otherwise unapproachable area. It did just that by designing instruments that were used to measure the results of experiments in space,” Sharma says on email.
In a country with a population of over 750 million in 1984 , Sharma became the first Indian to travel to space. In a country with a population of over 1.3 billion now, Sharma continues to be the only Indian to have done so. It is a record he has held for 33 years, but Sharma knows it won’t hold for much longer. “When I flew, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) had not started on a manned space programme. Our space agency maintained a single-minded focus on mastering satellite building and on bringing the benefits of space technology for the common good of our countrymen. Think telemedicine, television, tele-education,” says Sharma. “Now that Isro has achieved spectacular success in those areas, it is getting ready to expand its footprint in the realm of space exploration. I will not be the last Indian to travel to space.”
Growing up in Hyderabad, the Uttarakhand hill station of Mussoorie was the farthest he had travelled to. From space, however, Sharma got the full measure of India: a sight of “this huge coastline, the lovely blue ocean on three sides…the dry plateaus, forests, river plains, golden sands of the desert. The majestic Himalayas looked purple because sunlight cannot get into the valleys,” is how Sharma outlined the experience in a recent BBC article by Soutik Biswas.
Sharma was inspired to take up a career in flying early on. As a six-year-old, he nurtured dreams of being a chauffeur so that he could read comics and storybooks while waiting for the sahib. This was before a much older cousin took him to the air force base where he worked. “He sat me in the cockpit of a Vampire fighter jet he was training on. The array of dials and instruments got me hooked for life. I could hardly wait to grow up and fly one of those machines,” Sharma recollects.
A year later, the cousin died in a plane crash. “I was too young to feel emotions like grief. Instead, the episode left me with the feeling that this (flying) was dangerous business. Inexplicably, I found that exciting instead of intimidating and I dreamt of flirting with danger. It probably came from the books I read.”
Sharma’s first flight as a passenger came when a neighbour with a pilot’s licence invited him for a ride in a two-seater Pushpak aircraft. With an “ignorant” passenger around, the pilot tried to indulge in some grandstanding, “doing tighter and tighter turns while I made the appropriate noises in wonderment”. Suddenly, the aircraft “flicked” and “we were like a falling leaf towards Mother Earth. I think relaxing on the controls aided recovery and we breathed easier, he with relief, and I with excitement as at that time I was unaware of the dangers of uncontrolled flight”.
Sharma would go on to join a profession stalked by the stark reality of death. He joined the air force when he was just 21, and within two years, would fly 21 missions during the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war—this time, he had to confront the death of some colleagues. By the time he was selected from among 50 aspirants for 1984’s space flight, Sharma was an experienced operational pilot and a test pilot who “had the thought of death resulting from the space flight but only as a possibility”. His selection, Sharma dismisses lightly, was a result of being young, fit and at the right place at the right time.
Preparing for the space mission was a rigorous exercise. Before Sharma travelled to the erstwhile USSR for the joint mission between Isro and the Soviet Intercosmos space programme, the air force confined him for 72 hours in a windowless room at a facility in Bengaluru. The room had no television, radio, clock or books; there was nobody he could speak to. A bell would ring to alert him that it was time to remotely measure his blood pressure.
In between, he had to answer psychological questionnaires. Sharma refuses to elaborate on this. A biopic is being planned with Bollywood actor Aamir Khan playing the lead and Sharma is understandably shy of answering questions that “match the script”.
A year before the launch, he and another Indian, Ravish Malhotra, were moved to Star City, which is home to a high-security cosmonaut training facility, on the outskirts of Moscow. They were trained in Russian and put on a controlled diet while Olympic veterans put them through strenuous physical tests, even as Sharma himself tried out yoga. He was told he had been selected as one of the three cosmonauts (the other two were Russian), with Malhotra on standby. In the manner characteristic of the reluctant space hero, 68-year-old Sharma says he considered the pioneering rocket launch “as just another flight”.
It certainly wasn’t that for India.
In 1984, India was still a country with a single television channel, a single airline, a singular way of communicating via the fixed dial phone, and its only Metro railway system had just become operational in Kolkata.
I remember sitting around the black and white TV at home with family and neighbours when the Doordarshan signal flickered with the foggy transmission of Sharma’s interaction from the space capsule with then prime minister, Indira Gandhi. I was just 6 myself, so the import of the occasion escaped me, but there was no missing the infectious enthusiasm of the elders in the room—an outpouring of emotion that I later came to recognize as national pride. The country travelled vicariously with its first spaceman to the very edges of human imagination.
Sharma himself sent the entire country into a tizzy when, in reply to the prime minister’s query on how India looked from space, he quoted the poet Iqbal’s immortal lines, “Saare jahan se achcha.” India and Sharma found hope in each other. 1984 would go on to be a harrowing year marked by the bloodshed during Operation Blue Star at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the assassination of Indira Gandhi and the humanitarian disaster following the lethal gas leak from the Bhopal facility of Union Carbide.
The BBC article on Sharma describes how “Gandhi was pushing for an Indian in space before the 1984 general elections” and sought the help of the Soviet Union, a trusted ally. On his return, Sharma found himself being paraded by local leaders in their constituencies.
The former wing commander and winner of the country’s highest peacetime gallantry award, the Ashok Chakra, would go on to articulate his own thoughts in statesman-like fashion during a 2014 interview to Rbth.com, a Russia-focused international multimedia news project.
“It is my belief that humanity has been unable to break out of the cycle of violence for centuries because we cling to our identities; that of colour, nationality, language and culture. Space provides us a great opportunity to collaborate and cooperate with other nations, provided that the agenda is to explore space for peaceful purposes and for the greater good of humanity,” he said. “If we pursue individual national objectives during the coming years of space exploration, we shall only be succeeding in exporting human conflict from Earth to outer space.”
I ask him to expand on this observation. “The basis of India’s cultural philosophy is inclusive—vasudhaiva kutumbakam (the world is one family)—while that of the rest of the world is exclusive. I believe that exclusivity breeds conflict. If we choose competition over collaboration during future space exploration endeavours, we will merely be creating newer battlefields,” he writes back from his home in Tamil Nadu’s Coonoor, where he leads a retired life with his wife. From space, Sharma tells me, he couldn’t fathom the boundaries between nations.
Among the most unattainable final frontiers for man, space may have seen nations competing with each other during the Cold War phase, but now, with American entrepreneur and innovator Elon Musk announcing plans to take tourists to space through his SpaceX project, and even the colonization of Mars, some of the mystery surrounding space travel may disappear.
Sharma thinks Musk is putting his money to good use. “There is a role for the private sector in support of space activity but, in time, I suspect it will be confined to the exploitation of what space has to offer rather than in exploration of space per se. Therein lies the rub,” says Sharma. “The base philosophy of the private sector is exclusive—profit only for investors,” he adds.
Yet space, we know, is as endless as the opportunities it promises. “As for the upper limit of space travel, right now we are limited by the speed of light. Human life span presently limits the distance one can travel. If we crack this limitation—of speed, not life span—and time travel becomes a reality, the possibilities become truly limitless,” he says. “If yesterday’s science fiction has become today’s reality, what is to stop today’s science fiction from becoming tomorrow’s reality?”

What Suresh Prabhu can learn from Dave Donaldson’s paper on Indian Railways

What Suresh Prabhu can learn from Dave Donaldson’s paper on Indian Railways
Economist Dave Donaldson’s paper on Indian Railways shows ramping up investment in railways and roads is one of the best ways to promote development in the hinterland
uresh Prabhu may not have heard of Dave Donaldson, but the Indian railways minister would do well to read an insightful paper by the Stanford University economist who has been awarded the prestigious John Bates Clark medal for American economists under 40.
The John Bates Clark medal is a good predictor of future achievement. Twelve of the 39 economists who have won the medal have gone on to win the Nobel Prize in economics. The strike rate increases to almost one in every two if one considers only medal winners before 1993. The more recent winners are obviously too young to be in the running for a Nobel right now, so what happened to the first 25 winners is a better gauge.
One of the works by Davidson that is specifically cited by the American Economics Association in their press release last week is his paper on how the spree of railway building by the British Raj impacted the Indian economy.
Some 60,000km of track was laid in the 75 years after the first train chugged out of Bori Bunder station in Mumbai in 1853. The military intention is well known. A network of railways was seen as a convenient way to move troops across India by a colonial establishment that had been rattled by the first war of independence in 1857.
There were economic benefits as well. Karl Marx wrote presciently in 1853 that the railways would be the forerunner of modern industry. He added that trains would also dissolve traditional social arrangements.
The British funded the expansion of the railways network by floating bonds in the London market—at a guaranteed return of 5% a year. The early nationalist critics of colonial economic policy such as Dadabhai Naoroji argued that the high cost of capital was more than the returns from the railways, and hence amounted to a drain of national resources.
Donaldson is one of the new generation of development economists who use unique data sets to examine what happened in the past. His research on the economic impact of railways uses some innovative district-level data sets that he has constructed on prices, output, rainfall, domestic trade and international trade. These are based on digitized records of the British Raj. Davidson has also developed a digital map of the railways network. Each 20km stretch is coded with its year of opening.
His three key conclusions: railway expansion led to a fall in trading costs, it increased the volume of goods shipped and the economic benefits greatly exceeded the cost of construction.
“When observing the railroad network in India, I estimated that in a typical district, the arrival of railroad access caused real gross domestic product in the agricultural sector (the largest sector of India’s economy at that time) to increase by around 17%,” writes Davidson. This estimate was arrived at after taking into account both the positive and negative impact of the train on economic activity in a district.
There are two important lessons from the sort of innovative work being done by economists such as Donaldson.
First, debates about the past can be enriched if the data is carefully examined. One recent example is a paper published by three scholars on the website Ideas for India. Sriya Iyer, Anand Shrivastava and Rohit Ticku have constructed a geo-coded dataset to examine whether temple desecrations by Muslim rulers in medieval India are better explained by political dominance or religious iconoclasm.
Second, there are contemporary policy lessons as well. Railroads of the Raj: Estimating the Impact of Transportation Infrastructure, which Davidson wrote in September 2012, as well as his later work on the expansion of railways in the US, provides ample proof that ramping up investment in railways and roads is one of the best ways to promote development in the hinterland.
This lesson should be even more resonant at a time when the new goods and services tax will remove obstacles to internal trade by creating a truly integrated Indian market

ISRO to launch South Asia Satellite on 5 May

ISRO to launch South Asia Satellite on 5 May, Pakistan not on board
The launch of the South Asia satellite GSAT-9 is scheduled on board ISRO’s rocket GSLV-09 from Sriharikota spaceport
India plans to launch on 5 May the ‘South Asia Satellite’ that will benefit all the countries in the region, except Pakistan which is not a part of the project.
“It’s going up in the first week of May,” Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman A.S. Kiran Kumar told PTI in a telephonic interview.

According to ISRO officials, the launch of this communication satellite (GSAT-9) is scheduled for 5 May on board the space agency’s rocket GSLV-09 from Sriharikota spaceport.
Kiran Kumar said the satellite, with a lift-off mass of 2,195 kg, would carry 12 ku-band transponders. “Pakistan is not included in that. They did not want (to be part of the project),” he said.
People aware of the matter said the satellite is designed for a mission life of more than 12 years. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made an announcement about this satellite during the SAARC Summit in Kathmandu in 2014 calling it a “gift to India’s neighbours.” “It (name) was changed to this (South Asia Satellite) because of that only (Pakistan not being part of it),” Kiran Kumar said.
Earlier, it was named as ‘SAARC Satellite.’ “Basically, it (the satellite) is meant for providing communication and disaster support, connectivity among States (countries of South Asia region). It will provide a significant capability to each of these participating States in terms of DTH, certain VSAT capacity plus linking among the states for both disaster information transfer and also in terms of library type of things,” he said.
“So, there is a significant amount of inter-linking possible among the States (these countries),” Kiran Kumar said. According to ISRO officials, there is a potential for each participating country to use a dedicated transponder with a capacity of 36 to 54 Mhz for its own internal use. Each country would be responsible for content generation and its use, they said.

All you need to know about US's Mother of All Bombs

All you need to know about US's Mother of All Bombs

The United States on April 13, 2017, dropped a massive GBU-43 bomb in eastern Afghanistan against a series of caves used by Islamic State militants. According to the Afghanistan officials, the bomb killed over 30 Islamic State militants in the area.

What is the GBU-43 bomb?

The Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb (MOAB) also known as the ‘mother of all bombs’ is the largest non-nuclear bomb ever deployed in combat by the United States. The GBU-43 is a 21,600 pound (9,797 kg) GPS-guided munition and was first tested in March 2003, just days before the start of the Iraq war. It is a demolition bomb containing 18,700 pounds (8,480 kilogrammes) of the explosive H6, with a blast yield equivalent to 11 tonns of TNT. Nine metres (30 feet) long, with a diameter of one metre, according to GlobalSecurity.org, it is the largest-ever satellite-guided, air-delivered weapon in history.

What was the MOAB designed for?

The MOAB is a custom-made Air Force weapon that has been in the arsenal for more than a decade. It is designed to hit softer targets such as surface facilities, tunnel entrances and troop concentrations. It is a concussive bomb, meaning it is designed to detonate before it hits the ground. Its thin aluminium skin helps to maximise its blast radius and generate a shockwave, according to Wired.com.

How is the MOAB deployed?

The MOAB is dropped off from the cargo ramp of a C-130 transport plane with its descent slowed by parachute. This means it can be deployed from a greater height, thereby offering pilots more time to reach safety.

What is the Pentagon's view on the MOAB?

In the Pentagon's 2003 review of the legality of using the MOAB, it was concluded that it could not be called an indiscriminate killer under the Law of Armed Conflict.

“Although the MOAB weapon leaves a large footprint, it is discriminate and requires a deliberate launching toward the target,” the review said. It added, “It is expected that the weapon will have a substantial psychological effect on those who witness its use.”

Who made the bomb?

The MOAB was developed in 2002-2003 by Alabama-based aerospace and defence company Dynetics in partnership with the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL), according to the company's website. The website said the bomb's preliminary concept was developed into a detailed design within just three months, and successfully tested three times in 13 days. According to the Air Force, the last time the MOAB was tested in 2003, a huge mushroom cloud could be seen from 32 km away

Soft power, harder choices To extend its global appeal, China is accommodating religion today. India, which invested early in diverse freedoms, should highlight inclusion now

Soft power, harder choices

To extend its global appeal, China is accommodating religion today. India, which invested early in diverse freedoms, should highlight inclusion now

Never before in China have I seen as much interest in India as I did last month, when I attended the China Development Forum in Beijing. The Forum, founded in 2000, is now recognised as one of the most important international meetings on global economics. The conference was held in the Diaoyutai State Guest House, built in 1959 to celebrate ten years of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, with Mao Zedong’s famous proclamation atop Tiananmen Square. With its gardens, lakes and ornate buildings, the place is a cultural icon of China and served as headquarters for the Central Cultural Revolution Group.

With China eager to step into the caveat being created by the rise in protectionism in the United States, this was a special year for the Forum: There were hints of China’s soft power ambition everywhere, from the décor, the fluent English conversation with the students chaperoning us, to the topics chosen for the various panels and lectures. China’s Premier Li Keqiang gave an eloquent speech in Chinese, talking about his country’s role in today’s troubled world, occasionally pausing to correct the translator’s English; at one point, when the translator said “passions”, he turned to her and she quickly corrected herself, “emotions.” There were lectures by global corporate leaders and prominent economists. Amartya Sen had a special “Nobel conversation” with a charming Chinese journalist.

A sign of China’s effort to project soft power is its changing attitude to religion. Under attack during the Cultural Revolution, Buddhism is no longer anathema. China now has nearly 250 million Buddhists, constituting 18 per cent of China’s population — and 50 per cent of the world’s Buddhists. During a coffee break, a Chinese student accosted me to chat about Sadhguru, from whom he derived “spiritual inspiration”, quite unthinkable a few years ago. He assumed that, as an Indian, I would know all about Sadhguru.

I did not want to disappoint him and so, deciding not to be too fussy about facts, managed a decent conversation about Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev’s life and teachings.

I spoke in two India-specific sessions, one with the former Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei on “The Future of India and China in the New Stage of the World Economy” and the other, organised by China Finance 40 Forum, at a beautiful, quaint restaurant in Fuchengmen Inner Street. The group’s stylish title derives from the fact that it was formed by 40 finance and economics experts, all roughly 40 years old.

It is an open, argumentative forum, the kind one encounters in America and India. I told them what I believe, that the two countries in the world best poised to grow and become global leaders are China and India. China is ahead of India, having invested in health and education early, and having grown rapidly, between 9 and 11 per cent, since 1980. India’s growth picked up later, in 1994, and breached the 9 per cent mark only in 2005.

There are risks for both nations. China is trying to transition to what was known to be India’s strength — soft power — to connect to the world through the arts, films, literature and science. In the long-run, soft power is more resilient than hard power. That is why Athens, and not Sparta, a more formidable military state, is known as the cradle of western civilisation. That is why the US nurtured its universities to become global centres of learning and outreach. It is encouraging to see China recognise this: But such a switch will not be easy. With its powerful government, totalitarian control and lack of civic freedom, China will have to negotiate some risky turns to get there.

It is for this reason that, I believe, in the long-run, India is the safer bet. India made the difficult investments — in democracy, secularism, freedom of speech, higher education — early. The recent demonetisation was a big mistake. Without it, India would have been growing at over 8 per cent by now. Luckily, the country made decisions that were good, such as the adoption of the GST and the effort to cut down bureaucratic costs.

But India also has risks — they come from the resurgence of the country’s nationalistic right wing, which suffers from a sense of shame about India and an envy of other militaristic countries and chauvinistic cultures. There have been sporadic actions by this group across the country that can destroy the investment India made in soft power, which, once undone, can do immense long-run damage. I hope that the leaders interested in India’s welfare will act to stall these regressive elements.

What needs to be appreciated is that, while economic policy is important, and profits and finance undoubtedly matter, a country’s long-run strength depends disproportionately on culture, social norms, the level of trust among people, the sense of inclusion and pride people have in their society. (And it is worth adding, pride cannot be built by beating up people who do not have it). For this reason, the first World Development Report that I initiated after joining the World Bank in 2012 was called Mind, Society, and Behavior. The Report is a trove of how the mind-set matters — if you repeatedly tell certain groups that they are backward and less intelligent, they begin to perform worse, even when there are no innate differences.

Some of the most compelling studies on this are from India involving caste. How you present the option to get educated can make a big difference in people choosing to get educated. Different cultural backgrounds lead to different choices. And so on. There are serious examples enough in the Report. So, let me close by recounting a facetious tale from my college days, summing up the role of mind-sets. The Catholic Church announced a contest in which people had to name the most important person who ever trod the earth. The winner would get $20.

A Muslim man raised his hand and said, “Mohammad”. “Good try”, was the response of the jury. A Jewish lady offered, “Moses”. No. And this went on. Then an Indian, a Hindu, stood up and said, “Jesus.” The jury broke into a clap, while there was a gasp of anguish from the Hindus in the audience, who rushed to ask why he felt that way.

Tucking the 20-dollar bill into his pocket, the man answered, “Business is business, and must not be mixed with religion.”

Digital Payment Revolution : Facts & Figures Digital Payments Progress

Digital Payment Revolution : Facts & Figures

Digital Payments Progress

·         Lucky GrahakYojana and DigiDhanVyaparYojana launched on 25.12.2016

·         100 Digi Dhan Melas held in 100 cities all over the country.

·         100 day long information, education and 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 and urban cities across each one of the 27 states and 7 UTs.

·         With a turnout of over 15 lakh from cities, small towns and villages, the melas have enabled lakhs to open new bank accounts as well as create new Aadhaar cards.

·         Rs.258 crore of prize money won by 16 lakh winners, including customers and merchants belonging to different corners of the country and from varied walks of life.

·         The lucky winners of the Mega Draw felicitated by the Prime Minister in Nagpur.

·         BHIM App and 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 haso 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  Rs. 2425 crore in March 2017 compared to 2,80,000 digital transactions worth Rs.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.

·         Already, 27 major banks are now on board 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 and 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 Rs. 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.