e-RUPI voucher, another milestone in digital India

It could turn out to be the fourth pillar, further supporting JAM trinity initiative

Hari Hara Mishra | August 2, 2021


#Narendra Modi   #Digital India   #digital payment   #technology   #e-governance   #finance  


Today (August 2), prime minister Narendra Modi launched the e-RUPI voucher system which is another milestone in Digital India. Simply put, this will be a digital payment which will be delivered to mobile phones of beneficiaries, even with no bank account and this payment is like an e-Voucher in form of a SMS-string or a QR code. To start with, the government is expected to utilise this system for health services like drugs, and diagnostics under Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, other programmes like fertiliser subsidy and subsequently the usage will be extended to many direct benefit transfer schemes (currently around 300 DBT schemes are in operations). The first transaction today was made for payment towards the Covid vaccine in a private vaccination centre.

The e-RUPI is both cashless and contact less (meaning, no debit card/ credit card required). What is important is that the transfer is to a mobile number rather than to a bank account. Hence, this can be utilised even for unbanked population. The private sector can also use it for CSR activities. It will be a person-specific and purpose-specific payments system. Purpose specificity is an important tool to ensure the end use of funds transferred. For example, if the payment is released for textbooks, it can only be used for purchase of books and nothing else.

The platform has been developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and National Health Authority. NPCI has already onboarded leading public sector and private sector banks like SBI, ICICI, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, PNB, Bank of Baroda who will be the issuing entities. Any corporate or government agency will have to approach the partner banks, with the details of specific persons and the purpose for which payments have to be made. The beneficiaries will be identified using their mobile number and a voucher allocated by a bank to the service provider in the name of a given person would only be delivered to that person for the specified service only.

Because of Covid-19, contactless and digital payments have gained rapid acceptance and with increased smartphone usages, the volumes are likely to accelerate still further. The Reserve Bank of India has recently announced a digital payments index (RBI- DPI). The penetration of digital transactions is evidenced by the index at 270.59 as of March 2021, over a base of 100 as of March 2018. In three years, it has grown almost three times.

Digitalisation and fintech are the buzzwords for future. As indicated by the prime minister today, industry bodies, NGOs etc have displayed lot of enthusiasm for this product. Once this picks up momentum both in the government and private sectors, the velocity of e-RUPI will increase exponentially. This could indeed turn out to be the fourth pillar, further supporting JAM (Jan Dhan, Aadhar and Mobile) trinity initiative.

Mishra is a policy analyst and columnist.

Comments

 

Other News

Bharatiya Bhasha Utsav, Technology & Bharatiya Bhasha Summit launched

Union Minister for Education and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan Saturday launched the Bharatiya Bhasha Utsav and inaugurated the two-day Technology & Bharatiya Bhasha Summit in New Delhi. The summit aims to facilitate a seamless transition from the current education ecosyst

India retains 40th rank in the Global Innovation Index 2023

India has retained the 40th rank out of 132 economies in the Global Innovation Index 2023 rankings published by the World Intellectual Property Organization. India has been on a rising trajectory, over the past several years in the Global Innovation Index (GII), from a rank of 81 in 2015 to 40 in 2023. Inn

Vibrant Gujarat not just about branding, also an event of bonding: Modi

Prime minister Narendra Modi addressed the programme marking 20 years celebration of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit at Science City in Ahmedabad on Wednesday. The Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit was started 20 years ago, on September 28, 2003, under the leadership of Modi, then chief minis

AI in education: How to embrace the change (and why)

It is often said that industry is at 4.0 and education is at 2.0. To transform education in line with artificial intelligence (AI), it is imperative to adopt what companies like Google are doing. We must learn to grow along with AI as AI is going to grow. There is a need to evolve the mindsets of educators

Diamonds are Forever: A Saturday story

Saturday Stories By Rashmi Bansal HarperCollins, 176 pages, Rs 250 From the bestselling author of ‘Stay Hu

Oracle Adds AI Capabilities to Oracle Analytics Cloud

Oracle has showcased new AI-powered capabilities within Oracle Analytics Cloud. Leveraging the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Generative AI service, the new capabilities assist analytics self-service users to more quickly and efficiently conduct sophisticated analysis and make better business decisions

Visionary Talk: Amitabh Gupta, Pune Police Commissioner with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now


Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter