RBI Launches Mission “Har Payment Digital”

As part of Digital Payments Awareness Week (DPAW) 2023, Shaktikanta Das Governor of Reserve Bank of India RBI Launches Mission Har Payment Digital, which aims to make every resident in the country a user of digital payments. This is due to the increasing use of digital payments in recent years. Despite its popularity and adoption, there is still a segment of the population that does not use digital payments for everyday transactions. In this article we will have a brief about “Har Payment Digital” Mission. The Har Payment Digital’s major message is “Adopt digital payments and teach others as well.”

What is the Har Payment Digital (HPD) Mission?

With a Vision 2025 theme of “E-Payments for Everyone, Everywhere, and Every time”, the RBI Launches Mission Har Payment Digital (HPD) mission, which will run until the end of Vision 2025.

RBI will launch a multimodal campaign across print, television, radio, and social media with the theme “Adopt digital payments and Teach others” in collaboration with banks and other payment system stakeholders.

The central bank stated that through this campaign, digital payment users would be encouraged to teach non-users about the ease, safety, and convenience of E-payments to fulfil the aim of making every citizen a digital payments user.

Objective of Har Payment Digital Mission

The following are the objective of Har Payment Digital Mission:

• To improve the easy and convenience of digital payment.
• Facilitate on boarding new consumers into the digital marketing system.
• The mission will last until the end of the vision 2025.
• The aim of vision 2025 is “E-Payments for Everyone, Everywhere, and Every time”.
• To create awareness about advantages of Digital Payments.

Initiatives undertaken for Har Payment Mission

The following initiatives are undertaken for Har payment Mission:

• Jan Bhagidari: As part of the JAN BHANDARI celebration under the INDIAN G20 leadership, the RBI Regional Offices will conduct awareness and outreach programs.
• Digital Payment Awareness Week 2023: The RBI observed the DPAW 2023 from March 6 to 12, 2023 to deepen the use of digital payments across India.
• The DPAW 2023 campaign theme is Digital Payment Apnao, Auron ko bhi Sikhao (Adopt digital payments and teach others).
• 75 Digital Villages: In addition, to commemorate 75 years of independence, the Reserve Bank will launch a ’75 Digital Villages’ campaign. Payment System Operators (PSOs) will adopt 75 villages around the country and transform them to digital payment enabled communities under this scheme.

Evolutions of Digital Payment systems in India

• UPI (Unified Payments Interface) – UPI the instant payment system developed by NPCI and launched in 2016, is now the most popular and preferred payment mode in India. In India, the volume of UPI transactions has increased from 0.45 crore in January 2017 to 804 crores in January 2023, and the value of UPI transactions has increased from just Rs. 1700 crore to Rs. 12.98 lakh crore. In India, person to person (P2P) and Person to Merchant (P to M) transactions account for 75% of total digital payments.

• Cross Border Linkage – The recent endeavour of the UPI Pay Now linking system enables internalisation of our payment system and the cross-border linkage of India’s and Singapore’s rapid payment systems. QR code-based and UPI-enabled P2M payments have been enabled in Bhutan, Singapore, and the UAE. Recently travellers from G20 countries have just been onboarded to UPI without having a bank account in India.

• Bharat Bill Payment System: The Bharat Bill Payment System has facilitated the transition of bill payments from cash to digital form. The National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) System permitted the digitalization of toll payments. The National Automated Clearing House (NACH) technology has enabled digital payment of government Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT).
• According to a recent Pan-India digital payments poll (of 90,000 respondents), approximately 42% of respondents have used digital payments.  35% of non-users were aware of digital payments but did not utilize them, while 23% were unaware. Once consumers are on boarded in the digital payment ecosystem, the benefits of availability, convenience, speed, and security will ensure customer satisfaction and lead to the expansion of digital payments.  The statement is consistent with the RBI‘s Payments Vision 2025, which states that “E-Payments for Everyone, Everywhere, Every time” will be available. Significantly, inclusion has been designated as one of the vision’s anchors, and many initiatives planned currently will aid in this endeavour.

Takeaway

The “Har Payment Digital” purpose is to reinforce the simplicity and convenience of digital payments while also facilitating the on boarding of new consumers into the digital fold. Banks and non-bank payment system providers are planning a variety of campaigns to emphasize the available digital payment channels. This will further stimulate and assist the country’s embrace of digital payments.