Demonetisation: Switch to digital mode

Digital modes of payments are already there in our system but the adoption rate has not been high. There are a couple of ways to put you to the digital transaction trajectory. If you are ready to migrate to digital currency, these three methods would be helpful.

Plastic Cards
As of August 2016, 712.46 million debit cards and 26.4 million credit cards were in circulation. Up till demonetisation, our cards were mostly used in ATMs to withdraw currency. We have about 2.25 lakh ATM centers across the country, and 14 lakh POS terminals at merchant outlets. The same debit card which we use to take money from machine can be used at shops, medical stores, bill payment spots and fuel filling stations.

Here money from your account instantly gets credited to merchant account via electronic mode. Apart from this the same plastic card can be used for online shopping, e-commerce and utility bill payments. Money from customer account goes to the merchant account and the same merchant is forced to opt the same mode for the procurement from main dealer.

Mobile / Internet Banking
Plastic card is an alternative to cash payments but these channels actually act as bank branches on 24X7 basis. In addition to the fund transfer facility from one person to another, value-added services like fee payment, tax filing, conversion of SB account to fixed deposit and loan outstanding enquiry are possible via this mode, at the comfort of your home/office.

UPI App
The latest addition in alternate delivery channel is Unified Payment Interface (UPI). This is believed to be a real game changer in Indian Banking scenario. UPI initiative taken by National Payment Corporation of India to simplify and to create a single payment interface across all systems. This allows us to instantly transfer money to another using IMPS framework, even without knowing the other person's bank account number and its associated IFS Code.

In UPI Application, you can create number of virtual IDs (similar to email id. eg name@Bank ), and give this virtual ID to another person to send/collect money. Number of improvements and additions in this UPI mechanism are on the anvil, which will enable different stake holders to squeeze the benefits.

(Writer is working with Union Bank of India as Senior Manager (Technical)