India has seen a huge transformation in the banking sector and economy over the past decade with the implementation of Jan Dhan Yojana scheme. The country is on its way to building a strong and prosperous economy with various banking solutions that bring people of all sectors under one umbrella. With the onset of digital payment software usage in India many came up with robust platforms. One such platform that made digital transactions in India more refined is the Unified payment’s interface. UPI was introduced by the National Payments Corporation of India in the year 2016. Over the past 4 years, digital transactions in India have seen new heights with the UPI payment system as the platform.
What is UPI?
The UPI is a simple and easy-to-use platform that is designed to transfer money between two parties. The UPI payments system allows interoperability and real-time transfer of funds with the help of a mobile number and a linked bank account. You can instantly transfer funds between two bank accounts with the account number of the beneficiary. The added benefit of the app is that you can link various bank accounts to a single banking app. Noticing the spike in popularity of the UPI system; the NPCI launched UPI 2.0 in august 2018. The 2.0 version is an enhanced version with features for sophisticated transfer of funds. The latest feature of UPI 2.0 is a reflection of how digital transactions have improved and increased over the past four years.
One-time mandate
In the latest version of the UPI system, the users can pre-schedule a transaction and pay later. The mandates of UPI 2.0 are designed to sport a one-time block functionality in whichthe transaction is committed in present and processed later. This has been a huge convenience for the users as the instant mandate generation leads to an automatic reduction of payments on authorized dates. This has provided individuals relief from the hassle of remembering endless bills generated at the start of every month.
Verification of invoice
The latest version of UPI payments has focused on making transactions easy for merchants as the days when merchants waited in a long queue for transfer of funds in the bank has long gone. Merchants can dispatch online invoices to the customers who can view the amount of orders and other relevant details of payments. Customers can also check the authenticity of the merchants by scanning their QR codes thus preventing the rise of fraudulent activities.
Use over-draft account
The merchants can withdraw money from their account even if it is cash-deficit.
UPI is the game-changer
In India, UPI has been the game-changer in the payment space of India and over the years it has become one of the fastest payment modes that have brought financial inclusion to the masses. Let us take a look at some facts that owe towards growing digital transactions in India with UPI.
- Within January and December 2018, UPI saw 7x growth
- The adoption of UPI grew in tier 2 and tier 3 cities apart from tier 1 cities.
- In February 2020, recorded around 1.32 transactions that is worth INR 2, 21,995 crore
- This is a growth of 1.4 percent from 1.30 billion in January of this year.
- According to a report by world line UPI is the most preferred mode of online transaction in 2019
- All the records were broken in December 2019 by UPI with 1.30 billion transactions worth INR 2 trillion.
Bottom line
These numbers are not going to stop here as the adoption of UPI solutions by people is increasing day by day. The UPI has proven to be one of the most downloaded apps in the year as digital transactions are more preferred than ever before.