India's payment technology to the World

India has achieved remarkable feats in the digital payments ecosystem, which is unparalleled across the globe. In 2020, India surpassed all the other countries in the world, with the highest number of real-time online transactions, and latest market studies now estimate that by 2023, digital-wallet transactions are expected to surpass cash as India’s leading point-of sale. At a macro-level, these are dividends of the Digital India mission which has been driving a wave of transformation in the country.

India has proven by adopting a host of its e-governance tools - including the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Aadhaar identity service - available to other countries via open APIs and has made a massive transition to a cashless economy riding on cheap internet data, high smartphone penetration and easier on-boarding process, the country’s robust digital payment system is at a growth inflection point, feel industry experts.

It is available via the India Stack website, the project is "a set of open APIs and digital public goods that aim to unlock the economic primitives of identity, data, and payments at population scale". The site says, the principles, technologies, and functionality of India Stack can be applied in any country. None of the systems which comprise India Stack require any proprietary technology or intellectual property which would preclude their implementation in any other country.

The adoption of new-age technologies is driving digitalisation of cash transactions, improving customer experience, providing safe and secured transaction platforms, simplifying processes, creating awareness and most important technological innovations are key.

There are many success stories we are witnessing including, the instant payments network, UPI, claiming: “Everyone, including the World Bank, has appreciated it as the best platform.” Launched in 2016, the UPI has now handled 99 billion transactions, recording 2200 every second in May. Along with the RuPay card network, UPI has been central to India's efforts to use digital payments to boost financial inclusion.

Modi says this has proved a huge success. Hence, today digital products like UPI are the centre of attraction for developed countries of the world, or those countries which cannot invest in this type of technology. Our digital solutions have the reach, are secure and have democratic values.

As UPI continues to scale-up, it’s imperative that NPCI has visibility and strong confidence from digital-payment enablers with respect to their plans for ensuring compliance with the threshold-cap. In-fact, as per the current market-trajectory, under the 30% cap, the UPI market in India may likely be captured by a quadropoly.

Dr. Deepak Kumar Sahu, President & CEO, VARINDIA