Mahindra Comviva explores the evolution of digital payments in India

Mahindra Comviva
CUTTING OUT CASH: Paper examines the implementation of India’s digital payments strategy

The most obvious recent change in the payments landscape across India is the significant increase in the number of digital payments taking place in both urban and rural areas as a result of the measures taken by the Indian government to push the cashless initiative to the top of the nation’s agenda, says Mahindra Comviva’s senior vice president and head of mobile financial solutions.

Srinivas NidugondiIndia’s digital payments strategy is “truly broad-based and inclusive” as it leverages the existing banking and telecom infrastructure to provide banking solutions to the financially excluded as well as the digitally evolved, Srinivas Nidugondi tells readers in an in-depth paper now available to download from the NFC World Knowledge Centre.

The objective of any world-class digital payments system should be to facilitate innovation so the benefits of lower costs and better service experience can be passed on to the customer and drive adoption to even higher levels, Nidugondi writes in ‘Demonetisation: How India is setting the standard for a future without cash’.

The paper explores the various modes of payments in India today including USSD-based mobile banking, the National Payments Corporation of India’s (NPCI) Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and digital wallets, before examining the impact of the government’s decision to demonetise banknotes in November 2016.

“India is tremendously diverse,” Nidugondi says. “On the one hand, we have the tech-savvy millennials who are looking for convenient payment transactions. On the other, we have a population without access to basic financial services. Mobile wallet providers and digital wallet providers should take the lead from the government’s Digital India initiative and strive to educate the end user on the benefits of digital payments.”

Readers can download Nidugondi’s eight-page paper, which provides a wealth of insight into how the payments landscape has changed in India over recent years, free of charge from the NFC World Knowledge Centre.

• This document is part of What’s New in Payments, a 104-page special report from NFC World that explores and explains the latest payment trends and technologies. You can download the entire report here.

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