All of us use UPI in some way or another other but do you know what UPI is?
It stands for Unified Payment Interface which is a simple and easy-to-use payment system developed by The National Payments Corporation of India. This system powers multiple banks into a single mobile application enabling the users to make inter-bank, peer-to-peer, person-to-merchant, and all sorts of transactions.
Some examples of UPI are Paytm, Google Pay, PhonePe, and many other new and upcoming platforms. Industry leaders like Uber and Amazon are also launching payment platforms for their apps by giving attractive offers to users. Since its launch in 2016, the number of users has doubled every month and it has reached a timer high in 2022.
What does this unique accomplishment mean?
The best economies in the world such as America are trying to be cashless now. What does this mean?
It means that in an economy majority or all payments are not heavily done by using a physical form of currency and are done by various other means like a credit card, debit card, or UPI.
Since after demonetization the Indian government has been pushing for a cashless economy under Digital India. COVID-19 has seen a massive rise in this industry with it hitting an all-time high of 1.34 billion in terms of volume with transactions of nearly Rs 2.62 lakh crore in the June of 2020. Now in July of 2022, we have broken that record to set an all-time high of 6 billion transactions.
Advantages of using UPI
- With all the transactions being recorded on a device and less flow of cash the chances of black money circulation and criminal funding had reduced and are soon to be a no-show.
- Fake currency notes and coins have been curbed.
- Enhanced transparency and accountability for transactions.
- It’s easier to carry a huge amount and safer as UPI is one of the safest platforms of payment in modern India.
- A cashless economy saves the government the cost of production of currency.
- Growth and modernization financially.
- Global reach is the most beneficial use of UPI as you can send money abroad just by clicking a button on your mobile phone.
Honorable Prime minister Narendra Modi recognized this unique feat as an outstanding accomplishment. He said that this indicates the collective resolve of people to embrace new technology. It would help the government achieve its aim for a Digital India making the economy cleaner.
These remarks came in as a response to the tweet of Honourable Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman saying “UPI records 6 billion transactions in July, highest ever since 2016” she also tagged a media report on her Twitter handles.
Conclusion
To achieve this milestone we have crossed many barriers as a country and now are slowly starting to become globally modernized. Yet we should not be complacent as we have a long way to go in this journey of becoming a cashless nation to empower the Digital India vision.
Sources: Businessinsider.in and Ndtv.com
