10-Feb-2023: Digital Payments Utsav

Digital Payments Utsav

• Ministry for Electronics & Information Technology launched a campaign promoting digital payments across India.
• Events and initiatives are to be held from 9th February to 9th October 2023.
• Focused on promoting digital payments in the cities of Lucknow, Pune, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru.

DigiDhan Awards

• 28 awards were presented to top-performing banks, bankers, and fintech companies.
• Awards were presented in different categories to recognize efforts in promoting digital payments and contributing to the growth of the digital economy.

Significance

• Campaign brings together government, industry, and citizens to drive growth of the digital economy and promote financial inclusion
• Initiatives will expand reach of the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) in India and beyond
• Focus on connecting unconnected areas of India and making UPI a global payment method
• National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) partners with other countries to achieve this goal.

Other Digital Initiatives:

Digital India Bhashini

• AI-led language translation platform
• will make AI and Natural Language Processing (NLP) resources available to MSME, startups, and innovators.

Digital India GENESIS

• Digital India GENESIS’ (Gen-next Support for Innovative Startups) is a National deep-tech startup platform.
• Supports startups in Tier-II and Tier-III cities.

My Scheme

• Service discovery platform for government schemes.
• One-stop search and discovery portal for schemes.

Meri Pehchaan

• National Single Sign On (NSSO) for One Citizen Login.
• User authentication service in which a single set of credentials provide access to multiple online applications or services.

Chips to Startup (C2S) Programme

• Trains specialized manpower in semiconductor design at Bachelors, Masters and Research levels.
• Mentors startups involved in semiconductor design and makes available State-of-the-art facilities for design to the institutions.

Digital Locker (DigiLocker)

• Paperless governance by providing digital space for document verification and storage.

MeghRaj

• Initiative for harnessing benefits of cloud computing
• Accelerates delivery of e-services, while optimising the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) spending of the Government.

Indiastack Global

• Global repository of key projects under India Stack like Aadhaar, UPI, UPI123PAY, CoWIN Vaccination Platform, Government e Marketplace, DIKSHA Platform and Ayushman Bharat Digital Health Mission.
• UPI services will soon be available to NRIs in 10 countries; Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, UAE, the UK, and USA.

National Language Translation Mission and Digital Payments have come together to make UPI 123 Pay available in the local language.

11-Jan-2023: Cabinet approves the incentive scheme for promotion of RuPay Debit Cards and low-value BHIM-UPI transactions (P2M)

The Union Cabinet has approved the incentive scheme for promotion of RuPay Debit Cards and low-value BHIM-UPI transactions (person-to-merchant) for a period of one year from April 2022.

1. The approved incentive scheme for promotion of RuPay Debit Cards and low-value BHIM-UPI transactions (P2M) in FY 2022-23 has a financial outlay of ₹ 2,600 crore. Under the said scheme, acquiring banks will be provided financial incentive, for promoting Point-of-Sale (PoS) and e-commerce transactions using RuPay Debit Cards and low-value BHIM-UPI transactions (P2M) for the current financial year FY 2022-23.
2. The Finance Minister, in her speech on the Budget for FY2022-23, announced Government’s intent to continue the financial support for digital payments announced in the previous Budget, with a focus on promoting use of payment platforms that are economical and user-friendly. The scheme has been formulated in compliance with the aforesaid Budget announcement.
3. In FY2021-22, the government had approved an incentive scheme in compliance with the budget announcement of FY2021-22 to give a further boost to digital transactions. As a result, total digital payments transactions have registered a year-on-year growth of 59%, rising from 5,554 crore in FY2020-21 to 8,840 crore in FY2021-22. BHIM-UPI transactions have registered a year-on-year growth of 106%, rising from 2,233 crore in FY2020-21 to 4,597 crore in FY2021-22.
4. Various stakeholder in the digital payments systems and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) expressed concerns regarding potential adverse impact of the zero MDR regime on the growth of the digital payments ecosystem. Further, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) requested, among other things, for incentivisation of BHIM-UPI and RuPay Debit Card transactions to create a cost-effective value proposition for ecosystem stakeholders, increase merchant acceptance footprints and faster migration from cash payments to digital payments.
5. The Government of India is taking various initiatives for promotion of digital payments across the country. Over past years, digital payment transactions have witnessed tremendous growth. During the Covid-19 crisis, digital payments facilitated functioning of businesses, including small merchants, and helped in maintaining social distancing. UPI has achieved a record of 782.9 crore digital payment transactions with a value of ₹ 12.82 lakh crore in the month of December 2022.

This incentive scheme will facilitate building of a robust digital payment ecosystem and promoting RuPay Debit Card and BHIM-UPI digital transactions. In-line with the objective of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’, the scheme will also promote UPI Lite and UPI 123PAY as economical and user-friendly digital payments solutions and enable further deepening of digital payments in the country, across all sectors and segments of the population.