UPI –Making your smartphone into a bank – JIZ PAUL

The low levels of penetration of POS terminals with merchants are yet another reason for increasing the quantum of currency in circulation. In India, there are more than 25 million merchants and only less than 1.20 million card readers. And,that too, with many merchants do not have more than one card reader. So, the number of merchants having card readers would be still lower. As per RBIs estimates, the cash floating in the system is about 18% of the country’s GDP thus making India one of the most printed currency depended country in the world. The cost of managing printed currency is too huge that Government and RBI have been looking at initiatives for reducing the reliance on it. The vision as per the RBI Payment System Vision Document (2012-15) is to proactively encourage electronic payment systems for ushering in a less-cash society in India. With the launch of Unified Payment Interface (UPI), this vision can now be achieved. Launching the UPI few months back, the then RBI governor Sri RaghuramRajansaid “For a number of years, we have been saying we need a revolution in banking in India. I thinknow we can confidently say the revolution is upon us. What we have in India is the most sophisticated public payments infrastructure in the world”.

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