1553277193256_functional Analysis Of Digital Payment.docx

A PROJECT REPORT ON “FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS OF DIGITAL PAYMENT” Submitted By NIXON VELRAJ FOR THE DEGREE OF THE BACHELOR OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF MRS. FLEUR FERNANDES S.I.E.S. COLLEGE OF COMMERCE AND ECONOMICS SION (EAST), MUMBAI – 400022 ACADEMIC YEAR 2018-2019

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DECLARATION I, Mr Nixon Velraj studying in the Third Year of Bachelor of Management Studies course in the academic year 2018-19 at S.I.E.S College of Commerce & Economics, Sion (East), hereby declare that I have completed the project titled “Functional analysis of digital payment” as a part of the course requirements of Bachelor of Management Studies of University of Mumbai.

I further declare that the information presented in this project is true and original to the best of my knowledge.

Date: Place: Mumbai

NIXON VELRAJ

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CERTIFICATE I, Mrs. Fleur Fernandes hereby certify that, NIXON VELRAJ studying in the Third Year of Bachelor of Management Studies course at the S.I.E.S College of Commerce & Economics, Sion (East), has completed a project on “Functional analysis of digital payment” under my guidance in the academic year 2018-19.

I further declare that the information presented in this project is true and original to the best of my knowledge.

Date: Place: Mumbai

Coordinator’s Signature

Examiner’s Signature & Date

Miss. Fleur D’souza

PRINCIPAL (Dr. Nina Roy Choudhury)

College seal

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I have taken efforts in this project. However, it would not have been possible without the kind support and help of many individuals. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all of them. I am highly indebted to my guide, Miss. Fleur D’souza for her guidance and constant supervision as well as for providing necessary information regarding the project & also for their support in completing the project. Motivation, tips and tricks provided by her made the work easy and interesting. I would like to express my deep regards and gratitude to our principal, Dr Nina Roy Choudhury and our coordinator Mrs. Jinal Shah for her support and facilities provided to us for the same.

Nixon Velraj

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Executive Summary

My project aims on studying the consumer behaviour towards Digital Payment. To build the case for e-payments, this report explores the current inefficiencies in government payments systems and quantifies the potential financial and strategic benefits of making government payment flows electronic. The improved efficiency and greater penetration of an digital payment setup will likely encourage greater participation from poor rural citizens, and bring the central government closer to its cherished goal of reducing poverty and hunger through its welfare, food, and housing subsidy schemes. Advances in technology and new business models have provided them with a powerful tool-an electronic payment or ‘e-payment’ system known as digital payment. Digital payment may well ensure that every poor household in India- approximately 80 to 100 million will have unparalleled access to secure and convenient benefits directly from the government, and without the interference of intermediaries. A digital payment infrastructure allows greater penetration into the heart of rural India, where traditional payment systems remain inadequate in terms of reliability, convenience, and accessibility. By using digital payment method one can have direct and indirect benefits such as improved delivery of government services, and reduced corruption, potential increases in utilization of government services, increase in per capita income of poor households by 15 to 20%. This stage of connectivity is driving digital payments transformation – the migration of cash payments made over digital channels, either from dematerialized cards held on digital wallets or in the cloud, or from new digital payments mechanisms. Consumers rapid adoption of these devices to manage their daily lives- ranging from reading books, to sending emails, to checking Facebook, to navigating the streets has taken many organizations by surprise. Whereas, some months ago mobile and digital were components of a typical strategy, now they are the strategy, and at the heart of business transformation. In commerce and in banking, payments are at the forefront and center of the digital migration, reflecting their key role as the source of mass transactions for digital processes and the mechanism through which consumers interact on a daily basis with their bank with retailers.

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Table of conduct Sr.no

Particulars

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Cover page Declaration Certificate Acknowledgment Executive summary Introduction Literature Review Research and Methodology Consolidated Results Conclusion Bibliography Annexure

Page No.

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1. INTRODUCTION 1. 1 INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL PAYMENTDigital payments refer to electronic consumer transactions, which include payments for goods and services that are made over the internet, mobile payments at point-of-sale (PoS) via smart phone applications (apps), and peer-to-peer transfers between private users.

Digital payment is a way of payment which is made through digital modes. In digital payments, payer and payee both use digital modes to send and receive money. It is also called electronic payment. No hard cash is involved in the digital payments. All the transactions in digital payments are completed online. It is an instant and convenient way to make payments.

If we talk about cash payments, you have to first withdraw cash from your account. Then you use this cash to pay at shops. Shopkeeper goes to the bank to deposit the cash which he got from you. This process is time-consuming for you and also for the shopkeeper. But in digital payments, the money transfers from your account to the shopkeeper’s account immediately. This process is automatic and neither you nor the shopkeeper is required to visit the bank.

Digital payment methods are often easy to make, more convenient and provide customers the flexibility to make payments from anywhere and at anytime. These are a good alternative to traditional methods of payment and speeden up transaction cycles. Post demonetization, people slowly started embracing digital payments and even small time merchants and shop owners started accepting payments through the digital mode.

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ADVANTAGES OF ONLINE PAYMENTS

In the Age of High Technology cash strives to endure the competition with electronic money, because more and more people prefer to have virtual wallets. It is clear, electronic payment systems have a range of pros in comparison to traditional banking services:

1. Time savings Money transfer between virtual accounts usually takes a few minutes, while a wire transfer or a postal one may take several days. Also, you will not waste your time waiting in lines at a bank or post office.

2. Expenses control Even if someone is eager to bring his disbursements under control, it is necessary to be patient enough to write down all the petty expenses, which often takes a large part of the total amount of disbursements. The virtual account contains the history of all transactions indicating the store and the amount you spent. And you can check it anytime you want. This advantage of electronic payment system is pretty important in this case.

3. Reduced risk of loss and theft You cannot forget your virtual wallet somewhere and it cannot be taken away by robbers. Although in cyberspace there are many scammers, in one of the previous articles we described in detail how to make your e-currency account secure.

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4. Low commissions If you pay for internet service provider or a mobile account replenishment through the UPT (unattended payment terminal), you will encounter high fees. As for the electronic payment system: a fee of this kind of operations consists of 1% of the total amount, and this is a considerable advantage.

5. User-friendly Usually every service is designed to reach the widest possible audience, so it has the intuitively understandable user interface. In addition, there is always the opportunity to submit a question to a support team, which often works 24/7. Anyway you can always get an answer using the forums on the subject.

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DISADVANTAGES OF ONLINE PAYMENTS

1. Restrictions Each payment system has its limits regarding the maximum amount in the account, the number of transactions per day and the amount of output.

2. The risk of being hacked If you follow the security rules the threat is minimal, it can be compared to the risk of something like a robbery. The worse situation when the system of processing company has been broken, because it leads to the leak of personal data on cards and its owners. Even if the electronic payment system does not launch plastic cards, it can be involved in scandals regarding the Identity theft.

3. The problem of transferring money between different payment systems Usually the majority of electronic payment systems do not cooperate with each other. In this case, you have to use the services of e-currency exchange, and it can be time-consuming if you still do not have a trusted service for this purpose. Our article on how to choose the best ecurrency exchanger greatly facilitates the search process.

4. The lack of anonymity. The information about all the transactions, including the amount, time and recipient are stored in the database of the payment system. And it means the intelligence agency has an access to this information. You should decide whether it's bad or good. In general, the advantages of electronic payment system outweigh its disadvantages and they have bigger opportunities comparing with ones of traditional wire transfers. 10

1.2 INTRODUCTION TO INDIAN DIGITAL PAYMENT SECTOR

Payment and settlement systems in India are covered by the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 (PSS Act), legislated in December 2007 and regulated by the Reserve Bank of India and the Board for Regulation and Supervision of Payment and Settlement Systems,

India has multiple payments and settlement systems, both gross and net settlement systems. For gross settlement India has a Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system called by the same name and net settlement systems include Electronic Clearing Services (ECS Credit), Electronic Clearing Services (ECS Debit), credit cards, debit cards, the National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) system and Immediate Payment Service. The Reserve Bank of India is doing its best to encourage alternative methods of payments which will bring security and efficiency to the payments system and make the whole process easier for banks.

In the case of India, the RBI has played a pivotal role in facilitating e-payments by making it compulsory for banks to route high value transactions through Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) and also by introducing NEFT (National Electronic Funds Transfer) and NECS (National Electronic Clearing Services). Behavioral patterns of Indian customers are also likely to be influenced by their internet accessibility and usage, which currently is about 32 million PC users, 68% of whom have access to the net. However these statistical indications are far from the reality where customers still prefer to pay "in line" rather than online, with 63% payments still being made in cash. E-payments have to be continuously promoted showing consumers the various routes through which they can make these payments like ATM’s, the internet, mobile phones and drop boxes.

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Due to the efforts of the RBI and the (BPSS) now over 75% of all transaction volume are in the electronic mode, including both large-value and retail payments. Out of this 75%, 98% come from the RTGS (large-value payments) whereas a meager 2% come from retail payments.

In line with government reforms, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pushed Indians to adopt cashless transactions, giving the digital payments sector a significant boost. The Digital India programme is a flagship programme of the Government of India with a vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. “Faceless, Paperless, Cashless” is one of professed role of Digital India.

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The sector is experiencing an unprecedented jump in growth since November last year, when the government demonetized high currency bills (Rs 500 and 1000) – which represented 86 percent of India’s cash in circulation. By February this year, digital wallet companies had shown a growth of 271 percent for a total value of US$2.8 billion (Rs 191 crore). Prior to the sudden developments in 2016 enabling the massive disruption in India’s payments landscape, a Google-BCG Report estimated that India’s digital payments industry would grow to US$500 billion by 2020, contributing to 15 percent of the country’s GDP. An important driver of this growth is India’s vast smart phone user base – the second largest in the world.

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DIGITAL PAYMENT DIVISION

The Digital India programme is a flagship programme of the Government of India with a vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. “Faceless, Paperless, Cashless” is one of professed role of Digital India. Promotion of digital payments has been accorded highest priority by the Government of India to bring each and every segment of our country under the formal fold of digital payment services. The Vision is to provide facility of seamless digital payment to all citizens of India in a convenient, easy, affordable, quick and secured manner.

Hon’ble Finance Minister, in his budget speech announced several activities for the promotion of digital payments including setting a target of 2,500 crore digital payment transactions in FY 2017-18, through Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), Aadhaar Pay, Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) and Debit Cards.

Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) has been entrusted with the responsibility of leading this initiative on “Promotion of Digital Transactions including Digital Payments”. MeitY is working on various strategies, ideation with multiple stakeholders including Banks, Central Ministries/Departments and States, to create an ecosystem to enable digital payments across the country.

MeitY is working on strengthening of Digital Payment infrastructure and creating awareness through promotions of digital payments with all the stakeholders to achieve Government’s vision of making citizens of this country digitally empowered. Citizens have been provided multiple options to make digital transactions.

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MAJOR NEW DIGITAL PAYMENT MODES IN INDIA

Online or mobile wallets • Online wallets are used via the internet and through smart phone applications. • Money can be stored on the app via recharge by debit or credit cards or net banking. • Consumer wallet limit is US$ 311 (Rs 20,000) per month or US$1,554 (Rs 100,000) per month after KYC. The merchant wallet limit is US$777 (Rs 50,000) per month after selfdeclaration and US$1,554 (Rs 100,000) after KYC verification. • Facilitates P2P fund transfers. Prepaid credit cards • Pre-loaded to individual’s bank account. It is similar to a gift card; customers can make purchases using funds available on the card – and not on borrowed credit from the bank. • Can be recharged like a mobile phone recharge, up to a prescribed limit. Debit/RuPay cards • These are linked to an individual’s bank account. 15

• Can be used at shops, ATMs, online wallets, micro-ATMs, and for e-commerce purchases. • Debit cards have overtaken credit cards in India. In December 2015, there were more than 630 million debit cards as compared to 22.75 million credit cards. AEPS • The Aadhaar Enabled Payment System uses the 12-digit unique Aadhaar identification number to allow bank-to-bank transactions at PoS • AEPS services include balance enquiry, cash withdrawal, cash deposit, and Aadhaar to Aadhaar fund transfers. USSD • Stands for Unstructured Supplementary Service Data based mobile banking. • Linked to merchant’s bank account and used via mobile phone on GSM network for payments up to US$77.68 (Rs 5,000) per day per customer. UPI • The United Payments Interface (UPI) envisages being a system that powers multiple bank accounts onto a single mobile application platform (of any participating bank). • Merges multiple banking features, ensures seamless fund routing, and merchant payments. • Facilitates P2P fund transfers.

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1.3 ECONOMIC ANALYSIS

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Entry of global players into India's digital payment space is expected to grow the segment by about five-fold to USD 1 trillion by 2023, investment banking firm Credit Suisse said in a report.

Digital payments (in India) currently aggregate less than USD 200 billion, of which mobile is still at just USD 10 billion in financial year (FY) 2018 E (estimated) . We estimate that the total digital payment market in India will grow to USD 1 trillion by FY23E led by the growth in mobile payments.

It said that in just four months of launching its payments app, Google is already processing the same number of digital transactions as Axis Bank (4th highest among banks in India) and has resulted in unified payment interface (UPI) transactions increasing about eight times.

The digital payments will further explode when the most popular application in India, WhatsApp, integrates a payments button, the report said. Share of cash transactions in India are estimated to account for 70 per cent of total transactions in value terms and 90 per cent in volume.

Payment integration in to popular apps in India will drive the digital payment market in India to USD 1 trillion over the next five years. Digital payments in India are soaring on the back of the entry of global tech giants that are acting as aggregators for retail transactions.

The report by research analysts Ashish Gupta, Sunil Tirumalai, Kush Shah, Anurag Mantry and Viral

Shah

cited

trend

of

digital

payments

in

China

as

example.

Digital payments in China leapfrogged to over USD 5 trillion in the past four years on the back of rising mobile and data penetration.

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Data usage for 300 million Indian smart phone users has jumped to 5-10 GB per month from 1GB in the last year. The surge in digital payments in China was triggered by its integration into e-commerce and social platforms, which now have a 95 per cent market share the report said. It said that unlike China, mobile payments in India are being built on public infrastructure like UPI and Aadhaar that allow open-architecture and an inter-operable payment system to evolve.

With 800 million bank accounts now linked to mobile, existing bank accounts should be mobiletransaction ready. We believe that the top four banks (SBI, HDFC Bank, ICICI, Axis) are better placed as the aggregators are expected to look to tie up with these franchises, given they account for about 50-70 per cent of non-cash transactions. The Credit Suisse report said that there is also no loss of customers for the banks even as they transact on the platforms of these aggregators, and the banks would gain access to customer data.

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CHALLENGES FACED BY THE DIGITAL PAYMENTS SECTOR IN INDIA

RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan has said that PBs will “revolutionize” in India, without posing a competitive threat to existing banks. And the decision to grant licenses to one in four applicants represents a pretty unusual degree of latitude from the central bank. Further, the RBI has stated that the entities that didn’t receive approval this time (along with many others) could be accepted in future licensing rounds, as it intends to grant more licenses "virtually on tap." So the government clearly views PBs as a powerful weapon in its financial inclusion arsenal. But the impact of these banks is not guaranteed, and they will face the same hurdles as any financial services provider that aims to serve the country’s low-income, rural communities. If it were simple to serve these customers, India’s previous Business Correspondent efforts – not to mention its experience with private services like M-PESA, which captures almost every payment in countries like Kenya and Tanzania – would have met with more resounding success. Let’s take a look at 10 challenges PBs will face – and how they can live up to the government’s ambitious goals. 20

FINDING THE RIGHT LEADERSHIP The Payments Bank concept is perhaps the first of its kind anywhere in the world – a hybrid of banking and distribution with a running thread of technology. Thus far, business leaders from the fast-moving consumer goods and technology sectors have led teams in the payments space in India. But with payments now married to banking – a granular business of managing distribution points prudentially – it will be critical to have the right set of skills steering PBs’ efforts. Without the right mix of people, they may become a juggernaut hurtling towards failure.

DESIGNING THE RIGHT PRODUCTS Remittances generate profits – indeed, India’s Business Correspondent initiative survived largely because banks outsourced remittance services to them. But because of these competing services, PBs will need to explore a “remittance plus” model, creating a differentiation between themselves and existing Business Correspondents. This essentially means investing heavily in customer-centric product design, thus capturing face-to-face and remote transactions by offering innovative products delivered via mobile phone.

MOVING BEYOND CASH IN/CASH OUT How well a PB is positioned with its network of cash-in/out points or low-cost and tech-heavy branches will undoubtedly determine its initial footprint in the hinterlands. But cash-in/out alone will not be enough, as these banks’ sustainability and scale will ultimately depend on customers’ adoption of digital cash for making transactions. Just cash-in/out services and no (or negligible) transactions would result in inactive digital accounts, whereas PBs’ whole value proposition is based on developing a revenue model around actual payment transactions. Critical drivers,

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therefore, lie in PBs’ ability to leverage the e-commerce ecosystem in India, which is slated to cross the USD $16 billion mark by the end of 2015.

PULLING CUSTOMERS OUT OF ‘CASH IN KING’ MENTALITY The challenge of moving toward e-payments isn’t limited to infrastructure: For PBs to succeed, cash-obsessed Indians will need to migrate to digital alternatives, which will require behavioral changes above and beyond technological hurdles. Though a few e-wallet players and online marketplace providers like Paytm, Foodpanda, Shopclues, etc., have been experimenting in this space in recent years – albeit mainly in urban centers’ – for PBs, the task will be herculean. Ultimately, they will need a concerted ecosystem effort and additional policy support to spur the growth of interlinkages and missing markets.

SHIFTING INTERACTIONS TO ATMS AND MOBILE According to the World Bank, just 39 percent of all account holders in India own a debit or ATM card, and as mentioned, mobile banking has struggled to take off – especially in rural areas. Yet compared to branch banking, ATM and especially mobile banking are far less expensive per transaction, not to mention more convenient for customers. PBs have a great potential to change the patterns of interactions between customers and banks by making banking transactions via ATMs and mobile phones self-assisted, seamless, convenient and foolproof over the paymentsbased architecture in India.

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ENABLING PAYMENTS ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIPS

Effective partnerships will be crucial for running a digital payments system – particularly at cash-in/out points and merchant/retail points. Facilitating these relationships is often the role of special intermediary services providers like Pep Intermediacy in Kenya and Uganda, which manages float and distribution points for major supermarkets and players like Airtel, M-PESA and KCB Mattani Bank, and Kopo-Kopo, which helps to manage the merchant ecosystem in Kenya. India will need to put similar service providers in place to make PBs’ partnerships successful. AVOIDING THE GOVERNMENT BUSINESS TRAP Government business, in the form of government to person (G2P) payments, may seem like lowhanging fruit to many PBs. But they should resist the temptation to make G2P services a core part of their business case, or else they’ll run the risk of encountering the same sustainability challenges that Business Correspondents have faced in the past in India. With government commissions for G2P services subject to frequent and unpredictable decreases, depending on government business could bring the sustainability of PBs into question. WORKING WITH REGULATORS PBs will have to comply with RBI regulations and prudential banking norms, maintaining prescribed bank ratios like statutory liquidity, cash reserve and capital adequacy, and following rules involving financial fraud, Anti Money Laundering & Combating Financial Terrorism (AML-CFT), etc. And the need to comply with these regulations is one of the factors that many analysts blame for mobile money’s struggles in India, which has required mobile money players like Vodafone and Airtel to work through partner banks to offer payment services. With the important role PBs play in the government’s financial inclusion drive, and the degree to which the RBI is clearly invested in their success, hopefully it will ensure that these requirements won’t deccelerate PBs’ momentum.

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EMBRACING THE RISK AND INNOVATION PBs’ success in India will largely depend upon how well they are able to break the traditional banking mentality and innovate. For instance, India’s banks – particularly those in the public sector – have often heavily invested in government securities and bonds, as these instruments are perceived to be safer than credit-market investments. But with Prime Minister Modi calling upon Indian bankers to take a more proactive approach to banking, it’s clear that PBs must avoid this lazy and risk-averse mindset and embrace new thinking and innovation. Even though they may not have the option, right now, of offering credit products, PBs should embrace a forwardlooking mindset in exploring payments innovations – and even eventually offering credit services directly or in partnerships. LOCATING PATIENT CAPITAL Even though they are allowed to raise deposits, this may not be sufficient for PBs to fund their expansion. And with cutthroat competition, acquiring customers will be a substantial challenge – as will maximizing revenue per customer. So the PB industry will need deep-pocketed, risktaking investors – and they must be in it for the long term. The mere fact that the RBI issued so many initial licenses clearly indicates that not all are expected to stay alive. So investors must be willing to remain patient, at least for three years (or until they attain a net worth of USD $80 million), at which point PBs will be allowed to have an IPO and get listed on the Indian Stock Exchange.

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SECURITY ISSUES IN DIGITAL PAYMENT Concerns around the security of transactions and identity theft still prevent thousands from moving over to the digital payment platforms. Some 66% of the respondents in our survey said that security concerns remain their biggest worry. A cultural and mindset change is required to bring people on board and make them feel comfortable with digital payments.Experts insist digital payments platforms are fully secure provided the necessary precautions are taken by the user. Cash can get stolen and you will have to bear the loss. However, if there is a fraud related to your debit/credit card then you have a recourse. As per regulatory guidelines, the banks will investigate the case when you report a fraud and you will get compensated in case it's not because of lapses on your part. Most popular e-wallet platforms also comply with the latest security specifications and have added further layers of security, say experts. However, the existing machinery for protection of consumers requires a huge revamp before consumers become comfortable with digital payments. As more and more digital transactions move into the yet unregulated fintech space, proper fraud prevention, including device fingerprinting and consumer protection mechanisms, needs to be put in place. There is a definite need to improve the quality of the safeguards. However, service providers are taking steps for added protection. Freecharge, for instance, recently launched an e-wallet protection plan (at no added cost) for all its users, where the underlying wallet balance of all the customers will be insured up to a limit of Rs 20,000, as long as the user is transacting at least once a month. Other e-wallet platforms are also expected to follow suit.

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ROLE OF THE RBI IN ENCOURAGING E-PAYMENTS As the apex financial and regulatory institution in the country it is compulsory for the RBI to ensure that the payments system in the country is as technologically advanced as possible and in view of this aim, the RBI has taken several initiatives to strengthen the e-payments system in India and encourage people to adopt it. The interface has been developed by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the umbrella organization for all retail payments in the country. The UPI seeks to make money transfers easy, quick and hassle free. 

The Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 was a major step in this direction. It enables the RBI to "regulate, supervise and lay down policies involving payment and settlement space in India." Apart from some basic instructions to banks as to the personal and confidential nature of customer payments, supervising the timely payment and settlement of all transactions, the RBI has actively encouraged all banks and consumers to embrace e-payments.

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In pursuit of the above-mentioned goal the RBI has granted NBFC’s (Non-Banking Financial Companies) the permission to issue co branded credit cards forming partnerships with commercial banks.

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The Kisan Credit Card Scheme was launched by NABARD in order to meet the credit needs of farmers, so that they can be free of paper money hassles and use only plastic money.

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A domestic card scheme known as RuPay has recently been started by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI),promoted by RBI and Indian Banks Association (IBA), inspired by Unionpay in China, which will be promoting the use of cards ie. "Plastic money". Initially functioning as an NPO, RuPay will focus on potential customers from rural and semi-urban areas of India. RuPay will have a much wider coverage than Visa, MasterCard or American Express cards which have always been used for card-based settlements. 26

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The NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) introduced by the Government will ensure rural employment in turn ensuring that the employees get wages. Each employee will have a smart card functioning as his personal identification card, driver’s license, credit card which will also function as an electronic pass book, thus familiarizing the rural populations with e-payments.[2]



However, the Indian banking system suffers from some defects due to certain sociocultural factors which hampers the spread of the e-payments culture even though there are many effective electronic payment channels and systems in place. Despite the infrastructure being there nearly 63% of all payments are still made in cash. A relatively small percentage of the population pays their bills electronically and most of that population is from urban India-the metropolitans.

Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) has been entrusted with the responsibility of leading this initiative on “Promotion of Digital Transactions including Digital Payments”. MeitY is working on various strategies, ideation with multiple stakeholders including Banks, Central Ministries/Departments and States, to create an ecosystem to enable digital payments across the country.

MeitY is working on strengthening of Digital Payment infrastructure and creating awareness through promotions of digital payments with all the stakeholders to achieve Government’s vision of making citizens of this country digitally empowered. Citizens have been provided multiple options to make digital transactions. A dedicated ‘Digidhan Mission’ has been setup in MeitY for building strategies and approaches in collaboration with all stakeholders to promote digital payments and create awareness. Meity has taken several initiatives to promote digital payments and achieve the targets in a mission mode. Few of them are outlined below.

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(a) Digital payment transactions target have been assigned to Central Ministries with high citizen touch points, Public Sector and Private Sector Banks to achieve the target as announced in the Budget speech for FY 2017-18.

(b) Training and workshops on digital payments awareness with several Ministries have been conducted and planned ; MoRTH, MoHFW, Ministry of Agriculture, MSME, Department of Post, Ministry of Power, Panchayti Raj, Ministry of Defense (c) Promotional materials on publicity of digital payments including IEC materials is being shared with stakeholders to create awareness and sensitization

(d) Digital Payment dash board has been created to track and monitor the progress of digital transactions achieved by Banks

(e) Promotion and awareness approach framework on digital payments has been shared with Banks

(f) BHIM cash back schemes for merchants

(g) BHIM Aadhaar merchant incentive schemes

(h) BHIM referral bonus schemes for Individuals

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1.4 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

 To get an overall overview of digital payment system in India especially in rural areas  To study the consumer perception of digital payment modes.  To study about the changes in payment methods from cash to online banking post demonetization.

 To study the impact of demonetization on digital payment companies.  Make sense of the trends in payments and how they are shaping the digital payments landscape.

 Understand key features to make a digital payment proposition successful.  Identify the key action to set a digital payments strategy and build capabilities to bring digital payments propositions to market.

1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY The project on digital payment sector is carried out to gain in-depth knowledge of the digital payments modes and methods prevailing in India. This project will give us an insight on how the traditional payment method of cash is gradually transforming into online payment methods through e-wallets and net banking. It will help us to study about the impact of demonetization on digital payment companies. Also it will help us to know the status of digital payment in rural India. Through this project, we can understand the digital payment platforms currently prevailing in India and their position in the market, which will further help to choose the better payment option. Also we can learn the drawbacks and the challenges faced by the Indian digital payment sector.

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2. LITERATURE REVIEW

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'Demonetization and its impact on adoption of digital payment: opportunities, issues and challenges’

written by Dr. Dhani. Shanker Chaubey and Mr. Piyush Kumar and

published in the year June-17

This paper intended to know the importance of digital payment after Demonetization as perceived by the people of India, to assess the people trust and confidence in digital payment system after Demonetization, to assess the uses pattern and nature of transaction done by the people after Demonetization and to identify the factors of digital payment after Demonetization.

From this paper, the authors concluded that the digital payment had given relief and force to learn digital transaction after demonetization. People adopted technology slowly, but don’t wanted to pay extra for digital transaction. However, people of India faces money problems during demonetization they suffer with no cash. In addition, for this medium like paytm helps them.

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‘Impact of demonetisation on cashless transaction’ written by Ananya Mitra, Sonali Rath and Jayant Kumar Nayak and published in the year July-17

The paper aimed to study the usage of various mode of electronic payment, to study the effect of demonetization on cashless transaction in India and to suggest measures to successfully promote cashless India.

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The findings of the study were that the decline in digital transactions in two successive months goes against the government’s objective of a “less cash” economy. During the scarcity of funds people preferred to use debit and credit cards at point of sale terminals and mobile banking but these are also the two to be disposed of quickly. RTGS and Paper Vouchers usage fell drastically after demonetization when compared against pre demonetization period. The value of digital transactions in January and February taken together dropped below that of combined figure of September and October, before demonetization was announced. To counter the negative effect and encourage digital transactions, many private banks in the month of March, reintroduced charges on transactions of cash deposits and withdrawals beyond the stipulated number of free transactions. The step yielded positive result.

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'Demonetization: impact on cashless payemnt system ' written by Mr. Manpreet Kaur, Assistant Professor: SGTB Khalsa College, Anandpur Sahib and published in the year January-17

The paper intended to study Role of Demonetization and to Examine Status of Electronic Payment System.

The study concludes that the cashless transaction system is reaching its growth day by day , as soon as the market become globalised and the growth of banking sector more and more the people moves from cash to cashless system. The cashless system is not only requirement but also a need of today society. All the online market basically depends on cashless transaction system. The cashless transition is not only safer than the cash transaction but is less time consuming and not a trouble of carrying and trouble of wear and tear like paper money. It also helps in record of the all the transaction done. So, it is without doubt said that future transaction system is cashless transaction system.

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‘Study of consumer' perception of digital payment mode', written by Mr. Shamsher Singh and Mr. Ravish Rana and published in the year December 2017

The objective of the study was to find out the customer perception and impact of demographic factors on adoption of digital mode of payment. This study has made an attempt to understand customer perception regarding digital payment.

It was found that demographic factor except education does not have much impact on the adoption of the digital payment. Anova computation supported this finding as there was no signification difference is perceived by the respondents on the basis of gender age, profession and annual income. It was only education level of the respondents where signification difference is perceived by the respondents. It indicates that adoption of digital payment is influenced by the education level of the customer. If a person has studied beyond matriculation and internet savvy, he or she will be inclined to use the digital payment mode. It was also found that in the areas/region where education level is high such as Delhi NCR and other metropolitan area, the possibility of acceptance of digital payment is much higher. The growth of users of Smartphone and internet penetration in such area also facilitated the adoption of digital payment. 

‘Digital payments for rural india - challenges and opportunities', written by Shakir Ali, Wasim Akhtar, and S. K. Safiuddin and published in the year June,2017

The paper aims to study the challenges and opportunities of digital payments in rural India.

The findings of the study were to reduce the digital divide and increasing the awareness in the rural public, to ease the complexities and enable end-of-day settlement process for the merchants (As small retailers and merchants need rotation of cashflow in quick turnaround time for their business operations), to reduce the transaction charges over the 32

digital payments and discourage cash transactions. ICT infrastructure plays a vital role in successful adaptation of digital payments and hence there is intrinsic need to improve and offer requisite infrastructure for digital payments. 

'Black swan effect of demonetisation on digital mode of payment in india ' written by Professor Manisha Rajdhyaksha and Satyendra Jaiswal and published in the year April 2017 The main purpose of this qualitative study is to study and position the concept of black swan event like demonetization on the Indian digital mode of payment sector. This study showed how a black swan event like the recent demonetization has far-reaching repercussions and implications for an emerging sunrise sector like the Digital Payment. The Indian Digital Payment sector has shown agility and dynamism in their innovativeness and adaptability to survive and thrive in this black swan event. Moreover, the Indian Digital payment sector adopted novel approaches on multiple parameters like business processes, product and or service development, reaching hitherto untouched markets, creating market niches, technological excellence, and creating world-class services in this payment arena. The proactive approach of Government of India to instigate this demonetization and create enabling environment through positive policies will jump-start this sector exponentially and boost their competitiveness. With India ready to take its place in world order as an economic superpower, Digital Payment sector will bring in new business models with disruptive technologies. And black swan event of demonetization can unexpectedly become a catalyst for the growth and sustainability of this sector.



A study on demonetization and its impact on cashless transactions, written by Mr. K. C. Balaji and published in the year March 2017.

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The Objectives of the Study were-

 To study the history of demonetization across the world and in India.  To study the impact of demonetization on cash less transactions.

It was concluded that the growth of the cashless transaction system is reaching new heights. People tend to move to cashless transactions. It is right to say that the cashless system is not only a requirement but also a need for the society. But on the other hand, the risk of cyber-crime is very much higher as almost all the cashless transactions are done over internet. So proper and complete awareness must be made to the people to keep their debit and credit cards safe and to use the internet banking and the digital wallet in a most secure way. In order to punish the cyber criminals, the properly structured cyber police force with high end forensic labs and technology must be created. 

'Impact and importance of cashless transaction in india', written by Ms.Pranjali A. Shendge, Mr. Bhushan G. Shelar and Asst.Prof. Smitaraja S. Kapase and published in the year April 2017.

The aim behind this Research was ·

To know what a Cashless Transaction means.

·

Impact and importance of Cashless Transaction System.

·

Analyze the future trend of Cashless Transaction.

It was concluded that the benefits of this move have now started trickling in with more and more people switching to digital modes of receiving and making payment. India is gradually transitioning from a cash-centric to cashless economy. Digital transactions are traceable, therefore easily taxable, leaving no room for the circulation of black money. The whole country is undergoing the process of modernization in money transactions, 34

with e-payment services gaining unprecedented momentum. A large number of businesses, even street vendors, are now accepting electronic payments, prompting the people to learn to transact the cashless way at a faster pace than ever before. 

'Opportunities and challenges of e- payment system in india', written by Mr. Sujith T S, Julie C D and published in the year 2017.

The Objectives of the study were: ·

To know the different modes of e-payment.

·

To know the opportunities and challenges of e- payment system in India.

·

To identify the future of digital payment system in India.

It was concluded that Electronic payment refers to the mode of payment which does not include physical cash or cheques. It includes debit card, credit card, smart card, ewallet etc. E-commerce has its main link in its development on –line in the use of payment methods, some of which we have analyzed in this work .The risk to the online payments are theft of payments data, personal data and fraudulent rejection on the part of customers. Therefore, and until the use of electronic signatures is wide spread, we must use the technology available for the moment to guarantee a reasonable minimum level of security on the network. 

'Emerging digital economy – a cashless perceptive in india', written by Mr. Parikshit Agarwal and published in the year 2017. It aims to study the initiative taken by the government towards Digital Economy in India, challenges that will affect the implementation of Digital Economy and the Impact of Digital Economy on India’s GDP. It was concluded that the Government initiative to promote digital economy has provided the use of latest digital infrastructure for quick delivery of financial service thereby reducing time span for consumption of goods and services which ultimately adds towards 35

GDP of the country. The mainstream of Indian economy lies in rural areas, where 70% population is largely depended on agriculture. If they are digitally connected their socioeconomic conditions will improve through development of non-agricultural economic activities which will be possible only by providing them digital infrastructure and financial literacy. The government move towards digital economy is a dynamic move which require working all factors simultaneously like literacy, infrastructure, overall business environment, regulatory framework, etc

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3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 RESEARCH PROBLEM To understand and learn about the different digital payment platforms currently prevailing in India and their position in the market. To study about the status of digital payment in rural India. To study about the impact of demonetization on digital payment companies. To learn the drawbacks and the challenges faced by the Indian digital payment sector.

3.1.1 SAMPLE SIZE: Sample size determination is the act of choosing the number of observations or replicates to include in a statistical sample. The sample size is an important feature of any empirical study in which the goal is to make inferences about a population from a sample. In this project five digital payment companies have been considered for the study. And hence the sample size is one.

3.1.2 QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH DESIGN Quantitative Research Design is a formal, objective, systematic process for obtaining quantifiable information about the world, presented in numerical form, and analyzed through the use of statistics. Quantitative research is concerned with numbers, statistics, and the relationships between events/numbers.

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3.1.3 DATA COLLECTION:

Data collection is the process of gathering and measuring

information on variable of interest, in an established systematic way that enables one to answer stated research questions, test hypotheses, and evaluate outcomes. The following data collection methods have been used in this project

1. Primary data 2. Secondary data

Primary data: The data collected through various methods like surveys, observations, physical testing, mailed questionnaires, questionnaire filled and sent by enumerators, personal interviews, telephonic interviews, focus groups, case studies, etc.

Secondary data: Secondary data implies second-hand information which is already collected and recorded by any person other than the user for a purpose, not relating to the current research problem. It is the readily available form of data collected from various sources like censuses, government publications, and internal records of the organization, reports, books, journal articles, and websites and so on. For this project, primary data as well as secondary data has been collected from the following sources in order to study the current trends, opportunities, challenges in the Digital payment sector 1. Questionnaires 2. Published research reports, charts, research papers, journal and articles.

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3.2 ANALYSIS OF DATA The central government’s decision to demonetize Rs500 and Rs1000 notes has given a major push to e-wallets and the recently launched unified payment interface (UPI), an interoperable system launched by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which will allow peer-to-peer and peer-to-entity payments. E-wallets like Paytm, Freecharge have been quick to capitalize on this and have been aggressively advertising to promote the usage of digital wallets as a way of moving towards a cashless economy.

Ola sent out notifications to its passengers saying – ‘Recharge Ola Money now and you don’t have to worry about carrying any notes, whether 500 or 1000. Ride cashless’.

Mobikwik also is providing cash pick up facility to its customers for some days. A person can click on ‘cash pick up’ on the Mobikwik app, a representative of the wallet will come to them to exchange Rs500 and Rs1000 notes and will directly load it in their e-wallet. This means, one doesn’t have to go to bank or automated teller machines (ATM’S) at all.

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Big Bazaar kept all its stores open on Tuesday up to 11:50 pm and popular cafe Social too was accepting Rs500 and Rs1000 notes until midnight. The fact that the trend has always been low value-high volume transactions in the online space is likely to change in future.

For the study of this project, analysis has been made on the following five companies/ewallets-

1. PAYTM Paytm is an Indian e-payment and e-commerce brand based out of Delhi NCR, India. Launched in August 2010, it is a consumer brand of parent company One97 Communications. The name is an acronym for "Payment through Mobile". The company employs over 13,000 employees as of January 2017 and has 3 million offline merchants across India. It also operates the Paytm payment gateway and the Paytm Wallet. In a short span of time, it has scaled to over 250 Mn registered users. One of the biggest beneficiaries of demonetization has been Paytm as people have moved to cashless payments owing to cash crunch.

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Within 12 days, Paytm has witnessed over 7 million transactions worth Rs 120 crore a day. The mobile wallet is now four months ahead of its target and crossed $5 billion GMV sales. Now wherever we go, whether it’s small shops or a big store, we see a Scanning code on wall with “Paytm logo” which says PAYTM KARO. Gross Merchandise Value (GMV), which is an industry term for estimating the total worth of goods sold through a digital platform, for Paytm was $3 billion last year.

Paytm is registering over 7 million transactions worth Rs 120 crore in a day as millions of consumers and merchants across the country try mobile payments on the Paytm payment platform for the first time. Offline transactions now contribute to over 65 per cent of the overall business from 15 per cent about six months ago. They are also working on expanding our merchant network by 150,000 additional merchants.

Mobile payment transaction value in India is also likely to register over 150 per cent CAGR and cross Rs 2,000 trillion by FY 2021-22 from just over Rs 8 trillion as of FY 2015-16. Taglines like “Ab ATM nahi, Paytm karo” “cash is so yesterday” are doing the rounds.

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2. MOBIKWIK

MobiKwik is an Indian company founded in 2009 that provides a mobile phone based payment system and digital wallet. Customers add money to an online wallet that can be used for payments. In 2013 the Reserve Bank of India authorized the company's use of the MobiKwik wallet, and in May 2016 the company began providing small loans to consumers as part of its service. In November 2016, the company reported having 1.5 million merchants using its service and a user base of 55 million customers.

In April 2015, MobiKwik was used by 15 million users and claimed to be adding one million new customers every month. In a partnership with Cash Care, MobiKwik began providing small loans between 500–2,500 Indian rupees to customers in May 2016.In

November 2016,

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MobiKwik had over 1.5 million merchants using its service and 55 million users.

Mobile wallet company MobiKwik witnessed an over 40 percent increase in app downloads in less than 18 hours of the demonetization of the Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes. Following the 2016 Indian banknote demonetization in November 2016, MobiKwik realized a 400% increase in financial transactions using the service by late December, 2016.

Additionally, user traffic and merchant queries went up by 200 per cent among its over 35 million users. This has prompted the mobile wallet company to revise its business targets to now achieving a gross merchandise value of $ 10 billion by 2017. As part of the demonetization offering, MobiKwik has introduced a new feature where e-commerce players can ask for payment via “MobiKwik on delivery” since cash on delivery has become a non-option for many. 3. UPI & BHIM

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Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is an instant real-time payment system developed by National Payments Corporation of India facilitating inter-bank transactions. The interface is regulated by the Reserve Bank of India and works by instantly transferring funds between two bank accounts on a mobile platform.

Pre-demonetisation It remained a slow-starter. According to NPCI, the number of UPI transactions touched 1.22 lakh in September 2016.Some banks launched their own UPI apps, too. Though many banks have made a mention about UPI in their annual reports, only a few have given numbers on UPI (see info graphics). Post-demonetization Then came demonetization, and the number of UPI-based transactions shot up. The launch of the UPI-based BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money) app on December 30, 2016, by NPCI gave a further thrust to the payment platform. RBI data put the volume of UPI transactions at three lakh, 20 lakh and 42 lakh during November, December and January, respectively. UPI usage seems to have gained further traction with the number of transactions crossing the one-crore mark in the last two months. UPI is currently being offered by 52 banks. Recently, NPCI stated that the number of BHIM app downloads had crossed 1.6 crore. BHIM had an active customer base of 40 lakh as of June-end. With the UPI completing a year in operation in about a fortnight, it is to be seen how the common user and merchant establishments, including private and government agencies, take it forward. 44

4. PHONEPE

PhonePe is a Fin-Tech company headquartered in Bangalore, India. Founded in December 2015, it provides online payment system based on Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which is a new process in electronic funds transfer launched by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

It is licensed by the Reserve Bank of India for issuance and operation of a Semi Closed Prepaid Payment system with Authorization Number: 75/2014 dated 22 August 201 PhonePe is one of the best applications for the shopping. Offers like, refer and earn program, 100% cash back on first UPI transaction, on fifth UPI transaction 50%, for first bill payment 100% cash back in the wallet. There are so many other offers as well. Everyone should have this application, as it is friendly and it is having so many good features that we all expect in current time like one of the best is Split Bills. Lastly, we can keep track in the mailbox as well as in the application for our expenses with full detailed information.

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The service which was acquired by Flipkart in April 2016 has also extended its offline merchant network, especially in the last nine months, riding on the ‘cashless economy’ wave sweeping the nation. At present, over 25,000 offline merchants accept PhonePe payments. While peer-to-peer payments and bill recharges generate maximum volumes on PhonePe, the service also intends to get into the selling of financial products, and wealth management in the near future. PhonePe rival Paytm ventured into the NBFC space with Paytm Payments Bank earlier this year.

5. FREECHARGE

FreeCharge is

an e-commerce website

provides online facility

to

recharge

headquartered any prepaid

mobile

in Gurgaon.

It

phone, postpaid

mobile, DTH & Data Cards in India. On 8 April 2015, Snapdeal acquired Freecharge in what is being referred to as the second biggest takeover in the Indian e-commerce sector so far, after the buyout of Ibibo by rival MakeMyTrip, and the biggest Venture Capital exit in India to date. According to The Economic Times, the deal is expected to be anything around US$400 to US$450 million. On 27 July 2017 Axis Bank acquired FreeCharge for $60 million. Within the first 24 hours of the announcement of demonetization, the wallet loads of Snapdeal-owned mobile transactions platform Freecharge grew 12 times and has been increasing by the same average since then.

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Within the first 24 hours, wallet loads grew by 12x versus the 30 days average before. The number of people downloading the Freecharge app, registrations for mobile wallet, transactions on third party merchants -- are all growing by 10-15 times on a per day average basis. Demonetisation has given a boost to the cashless society and people are finally seeing the value of commerce, logistics and payments being integrated. Freecharge is also going to offer digital utility payments on your doorstep soon. Apart from above, below are the names of some more digital payments companies/ewallets-

1. Airtel money 2. Citrus Pay 3. HDFC PayZapp 4. ICICI pockets 5. JioMoney 6. Ola Money 7. Citi Master Pass

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3.2.1 DIGITAL PAYMENTS IN RURAL INDIA

In both urban and rural areas, online financial transactions, e-commerce activities as well as digital payments still lag considerably, despite demonetization and the drive to promote digital payments over the last one year.

Rural India lags behind urban areas in not just Internet penetration but also in Internet access for online financial transactions due to lack of electricity and poor network quality, a study by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and market research firm Kantar IMRB said. In both urban and rural areas, online financial transactions, e-commerce activities as well as digital payments still lag considerably, despite demonetization and the drive to promote digital payments over the last one year, the report said, adding that the situation was worse in rural areas. Only 16% of rural users access the Internet for financial transactions, while in urban areas 44% users access the Internet for this purpose, according to the report. A lot of these payments are peer to peer, and therefore there is a multiplier effect. So this has picked up in urban areas but the required critical mass has not been built in rural areas. Moreover, rural users are not continuously online in real time but switch off the Internet for long periods. Lack of electricity to charge devices, poor network quality and affordability of Internet service packs are the reasons for such behavior and unless this trend is reversed, usage purposes will remain skewed and off take of digital payments will remain

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restricted, the report said. “Connectivity, and more importantly quality, of connectivity is a question mark in rural areas. As of December 2017, India had 481 million Internet users, an increase of 11.34% from a year earlier. Of this, urban India has 295 million Internet users and rural 186 million. While rural India saw Internet usage grow at 14.11% year-on-year, compared to urban India which grew at 9.66%, this was mainly due to a low base effect as the total number of Internet users in rural India is still critically low, the report points out. It expects the Internet user base in the country to grow to 500 million by June 2018. As far as frequency of Internet usage is concerned, 182.9 million urban users access the Internet every day, as against 98 million users in rural areas. This usage pattern is closely related to connectivity, quality of service and affordability. Among the urban population, online communication is the top activity with 86% of users accessing the Internet for this purpose, followed by entertainment (85%) and social networking (70%). In rural India, however, entertainment stood out as the most popular Internet activity for 58% of the population surveyed, followed by online communication (56%) and social networking (49%). CSC e-Governance Services India Ltd is a special purpose vehicle set up by the ministry of electronics & IT to oversee implementation of the CSC scheme and ensure delivery of essential public utility services, social welfare schemes, and healthcare to citizens through these centers. Infrastructure needs to be made a lot better and services need to be more affordable to achieve the desired growth in Internet usage in rural areas. For the purpose of the study, Kantar IMRB collected data from 60,000 individuals from different demographic segments across 170 cities and from 15,000 individuals across 750 villages.

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CONSUMER PERCERPTION TOWARDS DIGITAL PAYMENTS IN RURAL AREAS

The survey carried out by me on consumer perception towards digital payment received 85 respondents. While answering to the question on digital payment in rural areas, many of them gave similar reasons for the failure of digital payments in rural areas. Some of the reasons put forth by the respondents are as mentioned below-

 Absence of proper infrastructure and illiteracy

 Poor network connectivity in rural areas

 Lack of awareness about digital payments in rural areas

 Security is the major concern of these people

 Adoptability and convenience issues

 Sudden changes take time to be implemented completely

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3.2.2 CONSUMER PERCEPTION TOWARDS DIGITAL PAYMENT MODES I had carried out an online survey on ‘Consumer Perception towards Digital payment Modes’ through Google questionnaire forms, which received 87 respondents. Here is the list of the questions asked in the questionnaire 1. Name 2. Age 3. Gender 4. Occupation 5. Which mode of payment do you frequently use? 6. If online banking, then why? 7. How often do you use digital payment modes to make online payment of bills and purchases? 8. For which of the transactions mentioned below, do you prefer to use digital payment modes. 9. How will you rate the convenience in the use of digital payment modes? 10. How much do you think are digital payment modes secured? 11. Do you think security is a major concern as some people are still using traditional methods? 12. Has your usage of digital payment modes increased post-demonetization? 13. Do you think demonetization has helped in the promotion & acceptance of digital payment modes? 14. Digital payment modes are still not preferred much in rural areas. Please comment on this. 15. Comment on 'India taking a step on the road to cashless economy'.

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All the above question were answered by the 87 respondents, results of the same are discussed below-

As seen from the above graph, the most of the population makes use of cash. Debit/credit card, online banking combinable. Only a 10% of the population makes use of online payment.

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If you prefer online banking, then please state the reason.

Majority of the people use online banking to save their time, followed by faster transfer of funds. Avoid standing in the queue is also one of the reasons. Half of the population is attracted towards the discounts offered by the digital payment companies. Very use the same for recording their transactions.

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Only 27 % of the population always uses digital payment modes, and it mostly younger age group between 15 to 30 years, followed by 44% who uses it frequently. 24 % of the population uses it only when they are in a hurry or fall short of money.

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As we can see most frequently it is used for recharge, fund transfer and online shopping. Comparatively lesser people use it for payment of electricity and other bills.

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As we can see that 83% of the population feel s that digital payment modes are secured but there are still 4% who feel that they are still not at all secured.

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Thus we can say that demonetization has impact of digital payment modes as 67% population claims that their use of digital payment modes has increased post demonetization.

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Digital payment has surely been benefited by demonetization as claimed by 85 % of the population.

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When asked to comment on ‘India taking a step ahead on the road of cashless economy, many similas responds were received which are as follows Cashless economy is not possible in India due to the dominance of traditional methods  Completely not using cash will also not be possible as the same is required while making payments to small vendors  Many feel that India should review its infrastructure policies and adopt strong and secured network connections  Some of them give it a definite support and claim that it will be a great start for transparent economy.  Some of them like the concept of cashless society and claim that 20 years down the line, India can become a cashless economy

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3.2.3 CHANGES IN PAYMENT METHODS FROM CASH TO ONLINE BANKING POST DEMONETIZATION.

The adoption rate of online platforms was high during the demonetization period, but it plateaued out as soon as cash became available in the system.

When the Modi government banned high denomination notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on November 8 last year, removing an overwhelming amount of cash from the economy, people had to willy-nilly fall back on plastic or online transactions. The fact that 86 per cent of the cash available in the system was sucked out. But once cash was back in circulation, those who earlier dealt mostly in cash went back to doing so.

The PCI was formed under the aegis of Internet and Mobile Association of India in 2013 to cater to the needs of the digital payment industry. During November, December 2016 and January 2017, online transactions were at their peak. In October 2016, debit card transactions stood at Rs 21,941 crore and those of credit cards at Rs 29,942 crore. Post-demonetization, in December 2016, debit card transactions jumped to Rs 58,000 crore and those of credit card were at Rs 31,150 crore.

However, in August 2017, 10 months after the note ban, debit and credit card transaction stood at Rs 36,000 crore each, having come down substantially from the heights they achieved, but not falling back to the pre-demonetization lows.

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After the cash flow in the system eased, small kirana shops stopped transacting through online payment channels, because they did not want to take a tax number or a Goods and Services Tax number. They do not have the wherewithal to pay taxes and the government needs to incentivize merchants, otherwise small and medium enterprises are going to go back to cash mode.

Security and trust in payment systems was something all stakeholders need to work on together. Online transactions are bound to grow over a period of time, but in a country which overwhelmingly ran on cash; it may be difficult to do a quick digitization.

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3.2.4

IMPACT

OF

DEMONETIZATION

ON

DIGITAL

PAYMENT

COMPANIES.

Over the past twelve months, demonetization has attracted mixed reviews, depending on the analyst’s lens. While a few businesses may have been impacted in the short to medium term, digital payments companies stand out as one of the most significant beneficiaries of the move. Post demonetization, there has been a marked reduction in the resistance towards digital payments, and this medium should continue to see sustained adoption going forward.

One of the talking points of the digital payments story has been the phenomenal growth witnessed by new age instruments such as Unified Payments Interface (UPI), prepaid payment instruments (PPIs), Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS), along with well-established ones such as National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT), Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) and cards.

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Digital payment companies have seen a substantial jump in their business as a result of the

government’s

measures

towards

promoting

cashless

transactions

post

demonetization last year. These firms are likely to further consolidate their business with more incentives for digital transactions.

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In the year after demonetization, digital transactions have grown considerably. Indeed, disruptions in the digital space have not only revolutionized the way we manage our finances, they have also made contactless and cashless transactions the preferred choice of many among us. And, with digital wallets, quick response (QR) codes, near field communication (NFC) technology, sound wave systems, virtual cards, unified payment interface (UPI) and Aadhaar Pay offering top-notch secure payments options, the smart phone has become the most sought after all-in-one device.

Official statistics indicate an 80% increase in the value of digital transactions in 2017-18, with the total amount expected to touch Rs 1,800 crore in the wake of the impetus provided by demonetization.

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The value of digital transactions till October this year, at Rs 1,000 crore, was nearly equal to that for the whole of 2016-17. It was a continuation of a trend, with June, July and August registering Rs 136-138 crore transactions on an average, according to the ministry of information technology.

Interestingly, the volume of digital transactions rose in March and April (Rs 156 crore in both months) when the effects of demonetization in terms of lack of cash had begun to wear off. Thereafter, the monthly average of Rs 136-138 crore indicates a steady pattern even as the value is rising.

The report, shared with the finance standing committee of Parliament, shows significant increases in average daily transactions across all platforms, such as UPI-BHIM, IMPS, M-wallet and debit cards, since November last year, when PM Modi announced demonetization.

There has been progress in establishing the 'Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile trinity', with 118 crore mobiles, a similar number of Aadhaar numbers and 31 crore Jan Dhan accounts.

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Since November 2016, there has been a 221% increase in volume of transactions and 118% increase in value of transactions in the non-tax receipt portal," the government said. In close proximation to Aadhaar architect Nandan Nilekani's recent statement that the government had saved around $9 billion by eliminating frauds in benefit payments, the government said direct benefit transfer had resulted in savings of Rs 57,029 crore up to 2016-17.

There has been a big increase in e-toll payments from Rs 88 crore in January 2016 to Rs 275 crore in August 2017 but the number of tags remains low at 6 lakh till September 2017. There has been a strong growth in volume and value of BHIM-UPI transactions. The value rose from Rs 101 crore in November 2016 to Rs 7,057 crore in October 2017.

Mobikwik had 3-3.5 crore users in the pre-demonetisation days and a year after note ban it has 6.5 crore. The company also witnessed a sharp rise in transactions from one million to three million within a year.

Digital transactions have grown. But the key thing is that a lot of stepping stones for future adoption have been laid down -- like the BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money) app by the government. Demonetisation was the shock that forced people to move to online channels.

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FACTORS THAT HAVE DRIVEN THE RISE IN DIGITAL PAYMENTS OVER THE LAST 12 MONTHS:

1. Embedding of offline space in the business growth strategy Offline space has evolved into the most recent battlefield for payment service providers. Acquiring banks have deployed almost 29 lakh POS terminals across the country, up by almost 95% from last year. 3 This space has also attracted the attention of UPI and PPI players, and many of them have developed innovative solutions to assist large merchant outlets, micro-merchants, cash on delivery payment facilitators of ecommerce firms, etc., in accepting payments seamlessly over mobile phones. Customers facing issues with cash availability post the note ban began to experiment with these digital payment modes.

2. Building of ecosystem around digital payments Quite a few players rolled out multiple solutions allied with digital payments, which further helped in their adoption. A notable few were: 

Integration of enterprise resource planning (ERP) of corporates with the UPI solution for real-time management information system (MIS) updates



Disbursement of instant loans based on the footprint generated by digital payments

3. Boost to interoperability One of the most significant changes in the payments landscape is the push towards interoperability, with instruments such as UPI allowing transfers between 55 banks, independent of the acquirer payment service provider mobile app.The increasing 68

adoption of the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS), Bharat QR and interoperability guidelines for PPI players will lend a further push to seamless, secure and interoperable payments.

4. Promotional efforts by players

Several payment processing firms and FinTech companies leveraged demonetisation to penetrate the market. In an effort to expand their market share, quite a few of them offered loyalty points, instant cashbacks and referral rewards to users. While some may have doubts about the long-term sustainability of such offers, the promotional efforts definitely provided an impetus to users considering a switch to digital payments.

The way forward The growth streak of digital payments is likely to continue in the future. The next push to the adoption of digital payments could come from relatively slow adopters such as the rural economy and the small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) sector. Government incentives such as discounts on digital GST payments and set-up of accelerator programmes will provide an added boost. A few specific use cases may emerge in the space of business to business (B2B) payments, Electronic Clearance Service (ECS) mandates, equated monthly instalments (EMIs), person to government payments (P2G) in smart cities, etc. These are likely to have a positive impact on transaction volume size going forward.

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4. CONSOLIDATED RESULTS

An upshot of demonetization was that the digital modes of payments picked up sharply. After demonetization, there has been a significant emphasis on digital modes of payment. The Government of India and the Reserve Bank have initiated a series of measures, some of which are temporary, to promote movement from cash to non-cash modes of transactions. They include, (i) Reduction in the merchant discount rate (MDR) and point of sale (POS) fees; (ii) Monetary incentives in the form of discounts and prizes; (iii) Service tax relief on MDR for small transactions; (iv) Waiver of charges for small value transactions under Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), Unified Payment Interface (UPI) and Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) based *99# platform; (v) Broadening Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPI) reach by enhancement of limits; (vi) Introduction of a new category of ppis; (vii) Permitting banks to issue ppis to a larger set of entities; and (viii) Permitting National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to launch (a) the common app for UPI; and (b) National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) system.

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The government also announced that it would ensure that transactions fee/MDR charges associated with payment through digital means shall not be passed on to consumers. These measures are encouraging migration of consumers from cash to digital modes of payments. After the announcement of demonetisation, digital activity levels were low in the initial weeks as people were busy depositing/exchanging SBNs. However, in December 2016, digital payment activity increased alongside progressive remonetisation. The usage statistics show that the y-o-y growth for major modes of electronic payments was good in October 2016, mainly on account of festive season. The continuance of that high growth with a further pick up in some components from November to January 2017 was a positive fallout of demonetisation. However, the pace of growth moderated somewhat in February 2017.

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GROWTH IN SELECT ELECTRONIC MODES OF PAYMENTS (y-o-y growth in per cent) Oct-

Nov-

Dec-

Jan-

Feb-

2016

2016

2016

2017

2017

Volume

16.2

23.3

39.0

38.0

34.5

Value

37.6

38.3

40.8

60.2

49.5

Volume

-1.1

23.0

58.4

52.7

20.2

Value

2.9

8.6

13.0

19.3

0.8

Volume

116.7

89.6

157.2

177.7

150.4

Value

150.7

135.9

186.6

196.7

184.2

Volume

53.0

30.8

58.3

19.8

-0.9

Value

89.8

76.3

116.7

22.8

54.2

Category

NEFT

CTS

IMPS

NACH

Source: RBI Bulletins and Press Releases on Electronic Payment Systems Representative Data

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The recent pick-up in digital payment activity is better reflected in the sequential growth in the months following demonetisation. The pattern of digital transactions in February 2017 over November 2016 shows that the growth rates surged in both value and volume terms compared with the corresponding period of last year for most electronic modes of payment, even as there was some decline in the use of digital payments after December 2016.

RECENT GROWTH IN DIGITAL MODES OF PAYMENTS (Volume in million, Value in ₹ billion)

Change (%)

CATEGORY Nov-16

Dec-16 Jan-17

Feb-17

Feb-17

Feb-16

over

over

Nov-16

Nov-15

Volume

123

166

164

148

20.4

10.4

Value

8808

11538

11355

10878

23.5

14.3

71583

69376

69159

73397

2.5

3.5

87

130

118

100

15.3

18.0

5419

6812

6618

5994

10.6

19.2

62236

52395

55873

59677

-4.1

1.1

Volume

36

53

62

60

65.2

25.1

Value

325

432

491

482

48.5

23.2

NEFT Average ticket size (₹ ) Volume Value CTS Average ticket size (₹ )

IMPS

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Average ticket size 8982

8183

7870

8071

-10.1

-1.4

Volume

0.3

2.0

4.2

4.2

1346.1

-

Value

0.9

7.0

16.6

19.0

2001.2

-

3150

3565

3995

4577

45.3

-

(₹ )

UPI Average ticket size (₹ )

Volume

0.007

0.102

0.314

0.225

3091.9

Value

0.007

0.104

0.382

0.357

4789.4

-

1037

1015

1215

1589

53.2

-

Volume

206

311

266

212

3.3

3.9

Value

352

522

481

391

11.1

-5.6

1714

1679

1812

1844

7.5

-9.2

Volume

59

88

87

78

32.8

4.3

Value

13

21

21

19

41.9

15.2

224

242

241

239

6.8

10.4

USSD Average ticket size (₹ )

Debit and Credit Cards at POS &

Average ticket size (₹ )

PPI # Average ticket size (₹ )

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While it is important that efforts be made for increasing acceptance of digital payments, it is equally vital to ensure that the digital payments are safe and secure. It has been the constant endeavour of the Reserve Bank to enhance security features of currency notes to maintain confidence in India’s paper currency. Similarly, there is a need to constantly review and ramp up security features of digital payments to maintain and enhance trust of its users, especially, given the low levels of literacy in India. In this context, the Report of the Committee on Digital Payments (Chairman: Shri Ratan Watal) submitted in December 2016 has also underlined, inter alia, the need for enhancing the resilience of the Indian payments and settlement systems; and strengthening the consumer protection framework in digital payments.

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5. CONCLUSION

Digital payment is extremely useful for the people who belong to the class where cash is considered the most suitable medium. If this technology grows to the point that every store accepts exchange of money through wallets, then it would remove the need to carry cash or cards. The three most popular digital Wallets available in Indian market are MobiKwik, Paytm and PayU. Besides private actors like Paytm, Mobikwik, and FreeCharge, the Indian government has been aggressively pushing several digital payment applications, including the Aadhaar Payment app, the UPI app, and the Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) app developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). The new apps aim to ease the transfer of funds across India, especially in rural communities, and more importantly, seek to facilitate a behavioral change towards the greater adoption of cashless services. As such, the digital payments industry is fast becoming a highly attractive destination for foreign investors keen to establish a foothold in India. Multiple factors and parallel institutional and behavioral trends seem to be powering India’s transition towards a less-cash economy. The rapid penetration of smartphones and spread of internet connectivity on mobiles, digital payment services provided by non-banking institutions and the rise of the fintech sector, consumer expectations of one-touch payments, and progress in regulatory governance and tax breaks, have altogether shaped India’s payments landscape in favor of digital solutions.

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The Indian banking sector has been growing successfully, innovating and trying to adopt and implement electronic payments to enhance the banking system. Though the Indian payment systems have always been dominated by paper-based transactions, epayments are not far behind. Ever since the introduction of e-payments in India, the banking sector has witnessed growth like never before.

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6. Bibliography https://paytm.com/ https://www.mobikwik.com/ https://razorpay.com https://www.wikipedia.org/ www.freecharge.com

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Annexure 1. Which mode of payment do you frequently use? a. Cash b. Debit/Credit Card c. Online Bank d. Paytm e. e-Vault f. Wallet payment g. UPI App

2. If you prefer online banking, then press state the reason a. Saves Time b. Avoid standing c. Fast transfer d. Discounts/offers e. Record Transaction

3. How often do you use digital payment modes to make online payment of bills and purchases? a. Rarely b. Frequently c. Always d. Only when I fall short of cash e. Only when I am in a hurry

4. For which of the transactions mentioned below, do you prefer to use digital payment modes. a. Recharge b. Fund transfer c. Online shopping d. Payment of electricity e. Payment of others

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5. How much do you think are digital payment modes secured? a. Higly Secured b. Secured c. Not at all secured

6. Has your usage of digital payment modes increased post-demonetisation? a. Yes b. No

7. Do you think demonetization has helped in the promotion and acceptance of digital modes? a. Yes b. no

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