Way to cashless society

Rashim Deepika
Post Demonetization has given a push to digital transactions. Government has started setting targets like the way the 20:20 match is being played. Technology has been evolving over the time and there is evolution in the vocabulary also like digital lockers, digidhan cards, BHIM   cards , e-Buddy, UPI digital signatures, Bharat  Bill payment System and E-Bhasha etc. The launch of GST is going to give a big boon for digital payments.
India is world’s fastest growing free market. Business world is evolved, social reforms have become integral part of the developing society. Making every transaction Aadhar linked will bring transparency in financial sector.
In Government  sector, now a days, there is a new concept of Integrated Financial Management . Every state is developing on these lines to make citizens digitally trained,  Government  is working on a number of plans like working on village level executives etc. Ecosystem is being made very conducive to promote digital payments. As digital economy is more accountable and transparent cash economy brings friction.
Inspite, of favourable ecosystem,  still Government is thinking on a  number of issues like giving incentives or setting targets to make cashless society rather we can say less cashless. A  number of applications have come in market on our smart phones, still the desired kick is missing.
People are confused by these number of applications, even number of people  don’t have trust in online payment. Even after bank accounts are being linked with Aadhar card, the digital payment through Aadhar linked is not so friendly among people, because number of times people don’t remember their account no., password. This has made issue a bit complicated. Mass awareness is lacking . Cyber threat is one of the main areas of concern. How to make secure digital payment, for this guidelines need to be developed by National Information and Security Policy maker.
There is also a concern among citizens/merchant that when making payments through debit card/credit card, bank is going to charge 0.5% or 1% on every transaction and therefore attempts are being made to avoid such transactions. It becomes more imperative for present Government to hold     interaction/deliberations with the relevant agencies and bankers to find a way to make the transactions more clear to the customers.
Process Engineers have to make digital payments simple and user friendly. Mass awareness among school children needs to be developed. In fact, this must be kept as a part of their co-curricular activity. As this subject is very fast changing so generation need to be updated from time to time. Even in Panchayat levels, one officer must be deputed at Panchayat level to train the people at grass root level and those who show keen interest and immediately accustom themselves with e-transactions must be awarded. To make a cash less society, areas should be divided in to various phases. Phase I- where there is no computerization. Phase II- where it is partially computerized. Phase III- where records are fully computerized and it has to be integrated with Payment Service provider.
Even Government can fix quarter-wise targets and results needs to be time bound. I.T department has to enable its support and facilitate their efforts for capacity building and enabling to switch over from non-digitized to digitized system.
Government departments are to be equipped for new system. Even all Nationalized Bank has to go in PP mode to modernize the people for opting electronic payments rather than cash payments.  But, it should always be people friendly. Since, everybody can’t afford smart phones, Government has to take onboard certain mobile manufacturer companies to make in built certain applications in all basic mobiles, where people don’t require to remember their bank account details and passwords every time.  Atleast one member in every family has to be made digitally literate. Government has to think on all these parameters to make digital payments a successful project.
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