Share these talks and lectures with your colleagues
Invite colleaguesPractice paper
Can India get to 25 billion retail digital transactions in 2017–18?
Journal of Payments Strategy & Systems,
11
(3),
259-274
(2017)
Abstract
The government of India has set a target of 25 billion retail digital transactions for the year 2017–18 and is pushing all agencies to work towards this goal. This is an ambitious goal when one considers that India had only 9.6 billion retail digital transactions in the year 2016–17. This paper examines the last 10 years of payment system data to establish trends and identify when India is likely to reach this target of 25 billion retail digital transactions. It also examines where India stands on the Rogers diffusion innovation curve with regard to the adoption of digital payments. Drawing on statistics from the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures, the paper discusses aspects that support the adoption of digital payments. It then proposes strategies for how India could meet the government’s goal more quickly, including pricing decisions, reducing taxation, widening access and tapping specific market segments. While this paper focuses on India, the strategies are applicable to any developing country interested in strengthening digital payments.
Keywords: digital payments; India; retail payments; Immediate Payment System; national automated clearing house; digital ID (AADHAAR) based payments; CPMI statistics
The full article is available to subscribers to the journal.
Author's Biography
Mahadevan Balakrishnan is currently with the Payment System Development Group, World Bank, helping multiple developing nations improve their financial market infrastructure. Prior to that he was Chief Operating Officer of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), responsible for Business, Operations and Technology. In that role he was involved in the creation of multiple retail payment infrastructures for the country, covering NFS ATM Network, the Immediate Payment System (IMPS), ACH, cheque truncation systems, the automation of 1000+ clearing houses in India with a standard solution, AADHAAR-based payment ecosystems for direct benefit transfer schemes, and the RUPAY domestic cards scheme, thus helping NPCI deliver its vision of simple, easy, convenient and cost-effective retail payment systems for all Indians. The systems he helped create in India facilitated the PMJDY financial inclusion schemes and the Direct Benefits Transfer to Bank Accounts schemes, saving India billions of Rupees. He has over 25 years of banking/technology leadership/ management experience with leading banks such as ABN AMRO Bank, Barclays and Citibank, and he was also involved in the implementation of some of the payment systems for these banks. He is a postgraduate in Business Administration (MBA) and in Bank Management (MBM), and has a Doctorate (PhD) in Financial Management/Payments. He has published several papers relating to payment systems in national and international journals.
