Unified Payments Interface (UPI) system became a very essential part of most peoples lives during 2020. As the economy pushed towards being cashless to support social distancing, the role of UPI apps grew multiple-fold. Things such as paying bills to purchasing subscriptions, people relied on UPI apps for completing the transactions. As per a PTI report, President Ram Nath Kovind said that in the last month of 2020, Indians transacted over Rs 4 lakh crore using UPI. He also informed that more than 200 banks in India are now connected with the UPI system — more details on the story ahead.
Rs 4 Lakh Crore Transacted Through UPI in December 2020, Made Transactions Safe
The president addressed the parliament’s joint sitting on the first day of the budgeting session and said that with through Aadhar, Mobile, and Jan Dhan Accounts, Indians saved around Rs 1.8 lakh crore from falling into the hands of fraudsters while making transactions online. UPI is a digital payments system which is regulated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) but is built by the National Payments Corporation of India (NCPI). It allows users to transfer money from one account to another instantly. The best part about it is that everything related to a UPI transaction can be executed in the smartphone. Kovind further said that Digilocker, another digital solution availed by India’s government, holds over 400 crore digital documents. He added that crores of Indians are availing more than 2,000 services with the help of Umang application. Another thing UPI has facilitated for the Indians is security. Now huge sums of cash can be transferred to another person’s account without the risk of physically handling it and travelling. Along with that, every transaction is recorded and can be traced by the authorities. So if there is a fraud transaction, it can be reported to the police and most likely, users can get their money back. Kovind pointed out the importance of internet connectivity in today’s world. Keeping this in mind, he said that the government is planning to connect over 6 lakh villages with the help of optical fiber in the next few years. The president said that the government’s Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, which is worth about Rs 1.5 lakh crore is being invested in over 10 different sectors to boost the country’s economy. He compared the day when India had only two mobile manufacturing factories to today when it has become the second-largest smartphone maker in the world.
