Ever since the demonetisation took place, the volume of digital transactions have been increasing and multiple payment apps are changing the way the Indians used to deal largely with cash. This year, 1527 crore digital transactions have taken place till September 11, 2019. The number of digital transactions in 2016-17 was 1,013 crore, which increased to 3,134 crore in 2018-19. There has been an increase in digital payments across the country since 2016.
In comparison to all other payment interface and apps, the popularity of Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) payment app is multiplying. In 2017-2018, 4.41 per cent of the total digital transactions were made through this app that rose to 17.8 per cent in 2018-2019.
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In order to bring financial inclusion to the nation and make digitally empowered society, BHIM app was developed by the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) and was launched by Prime Minister Modi in December 2016.
The data presented by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to the Rajya Sabha in July and the data on the Digidhan Dashboard of the ministry reveal that the popularity of digital payment is slowly but steadily gaining roots in all parts of India.
In July 2019, Minister of Electronics and IT Ravishankar Prasad informed the Parliament in a written reply to a question that digital transactions volume have risen to 3,133.58 crore in 2018-2019, registering a growth of 51 per cent over the previous year. Prasad also told the house that transaction volumes in the first month of the current financial year (till April 30, 2019) alone stood at about 313 crore.
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While giving a reply, he threw light on the usage of BHIM app for digital transactions. He mentioned that the volume of digital payment transactions done on the BHIM app increased from 31.9 lakh in April 2017 to 154.9 lakh in June 2019.
Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley in his Budget speech of 2017-18, had announced a target of 2,500 crore digital transaction for 2017-18. The target achieved was 2,070.39 crore.
The ministry informed the Rajya Sabha that the ‘Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA) scheme would cover six crore rural households (one person per household) by March 2020 to spread digital literacy. And with this initiative, the government is aiming to boost the volume of digital transaction in India to a further level.
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