MeitY encourages public and private banks to promote Digital Payments

Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Hon'ble Minister of Electronics and IT & Law & Justice, Government of India, has urged the public- and private-sector banks to promote adoption of digital payments as part of the Government of India's "Digi Dhan Abhiyan".

In line with the priority of the Government of India to promote Digital Payment transactions, the Ministry of Electronics and IT has taken a number of initiatives not only to offer better products in terms of technology and user-friendliness but also to inform, educate and enable citizens in the country on digital transactions. 

In this context, Union Minister of Electronics and IT and Law & Justice Ravi Shankar Prasad met with the senior representatives of the public- and private-sector banks and other key departments.

The meeting was attended by Smt. Aruna Sundarajan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and IT, and representatives of RBI, NPCI, SBI, Department of Financial Services, CERT-In and other senior officials.

The Hon’ble Minister remarked that digital payments need to be made convenient and flawless. Banks have a very important role to play in Digital India and Digi Dhan Abhiyan. He urged the banks to incentivize digital payments and transactions to bring more people into the fold of digital banking.

He remarked that to address concerns of cybersecurity, the Department will soon conduct a security drill both for the banks and NPCI. He urged the banks to adopt villages and promote digital inclusion and awareness about digital payments with them. He also requested that villages with majority tribal population be prioritized by banks for creating awareness on digital payments and transactions. This would be an opportunity for banks to become change agents to spread awareness about Digital India.

He urged the banks to create a uniform branding for promoting digital payments. Such uniform branding would help create awareness amongst the general public on availability of digital transactions with merchants. He recommended that the banks should identify large mandis to encourage adoption of digital transactions.

MeitY emphasized the need for utmost rigour in ensuring and complying with the RBI guidelines with the current focus on increased use of digital payment transactions. It was informed that NPCI will soon launch a redesigned USSD platform and a common app for UPI for enabling digital transactions, as well as addressing interoperability issues.

MeitY Secretary Aruna Sundarajan urged the banks to work towards making USSD a preferable and convenient mode of digital payments, in the light of the fact that majority of Jan-Dhan account-holders would directly benefit from it.