Digital Cashless Situation in India

Digital Cashless India

Digital transactions have made the existence of individuals a lot simpler than previously. Hence, modern customers prefer making online payments instead of standing in a queue for withdrawing money from ATMs. Along with this, digital payment options have reduced the burden of carrying cash. Cashless payment services are starting in India, growing faster than in other countries around the world. The shift has attracted several tech companies, backed by deep-pocketed foreign investors, battling for market share. Some years back the Digital India mission was launched to form a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. The goal was to form a contemporary India where citizens do not have to stand in a queue for necessities, where medical facilities are accessible to one and all, distance and reach is not a barrier for quality education and every citizen is empowered with a bank account and most importantly financial technology. The success achieved by citizens, start-ups, corporate, regulators & government bodies, under the guidance of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) working together is truly remarkable and inspires Indians to work harder every day.

Benefits of Using Online Payment methods:

• Convenience & accessibility: with digital payments, customers can self-service and pay invoices from anywhere at any time. They can even pay directly from the emails and invoices they receive with a 1-click “Pay Now” button.
• Lower risk: Digital transactions are much more secure than traditional ones because they are processed by secure gateways which are hard to tamper with. Most platforms are heavily regulated and protected to keep your money safe.
• Easily traceable: Details of payments are stored in a merchant-specific database. Both merchants and customers have easy access to payment information. This avoids ambiguity and confusion while tracking payments because you know where the money is at all times.
• More options mean faster payments: Several studies prove that offering customers multiple payment options can lead to getting paid faster, improving cash flow, and allowing companies to expand at a quicker rate.
• Save costs, time, and processing fees: Many payment methods are loaded with fees and soft costs, especially paper checks. One of the benefits of going paperless is that most solutions have fixed fees that allow for better planning, and businesses can choose the model that better suits their needs. Some cashless services platforms even forgo transaction fees altogether and instead use a payments-as-a-service model.
• Enhanced Security: Unlike your regular wallet, your phone has controls available — should you turn them on — that will allow only you to get in. If someone finds your wallet, your cards are all right there. But if someone finds your phone, they can’t just physically reach into it and pull out a credit card. Plus, when the payment is made in-store or online, what is exchanged instead of your card number is a unique transaction identifier or token — so the stores where you shop with a digital wallet do not have to store your account information — which can help enhance the security of your data.

Here are some apps with a very good user interface, enhancing the safest and fastest online payment experiences in India.

PayTM

Is one of the largest mobile commerce platforms and one of the top online payments apps in India which is made in India, offering its customers a digital wallet to store money and make quick payments. Launched in 2010, this e-wallet app works on a semi-closed model and has a mobile market, where a customer can load money and make payments to merchants who have operational tie-ups with the company. It was originally the No.1 digital wallet in India before UPI being introduced. Apart from making e-commerce transactions, this e-wallet app can also be used to make bill payments, transfer money, and avail services from merchants from the travel, entertainment, and retail industry. Presently, they too have UPI-enabled payments.

PhonePe

India’s leading digital payments platform PhonePe is in the process of enabling digitization for as many as 25 million small merchants across India. This will allow these merchants including Kirana Stores, access to the PhonePe for Business app, giving them the ability to use the completely digital payments process with vendors and customers. This comes as the government of India continues to push for digital payments to reduce the reliance on cash for payments. PhonePe started in 2015 and in just 4 years it has been able to cross the 100 million download mark. From UPI payments to recharges, money transfers to online bill payments, you can do it all on PhonePe. 

Yono-by-SBI

It is a mobile wallet application that was launched by the State Bank of India to let users transfer money to other users and bank accounts, pay bills, recharge, book for movies, hotels, shopping as well as travel. This semi-closed prepaid wallet offers its services in 13 languages and is available for non-SBI customers as well. This app also allows its customers to set reminders for dues, money transfers and view the mini-statement for the transactions carried out.

Google-Pay 

As a feature of the Google biological system, they have scaled up their client base rapidly, regardless of being a late contestant. It is at present the No.1 advanced wallet and one of the top online installment applications in India. With Google Pay you can send cash to companions, take care of bills and purchase on the web, recharge your telephone – all through UPI and straightforwardly from your bank account. There’s no compelling reason to stress over reloading wallets and you don’t have to do extra KYC – which is needed for the wide range of various applications. You can likewise earn scratch cards and different prizes, with the cashback directly being moved into your financial balance. 

Wrapping Up

Going cashless offers many benefits for monetarily agricultural nations like India.  Along these lines, it shocks no one that one of the precepts of the Digital India Mission is the foundation of a “faceless, paperless, cashless” India. This is the trend world over, making the move to digital transactions almost unavoidable now.

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