World bank report says mobile money and electronic transfers coul bring financial services to 2.5 billion marginalized people .
The government of India seeks to promote digital payment methods to encourage consumers and merchants to increasingly shift to these payment modes. To take this initiative forward, Lucky Grahak Yojana for Consumers and Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojana for Merchants have been launched on December 25 at Vigyan Bhavan. The schemes are aimed at encouraging people to move towards significantly higher usage of digital transactions through the offer of incentives. Winners will be selected on a daily and weekly basis under the Lucky Grahak Yojana and weekly basis under the Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojana respectively, leading up to April 14, 2017, when the schemes will culminate with a mega draw.
The draws for these events will be taken out in 100 different cities around the country, in a ceremony accompanied by a digital payments adoption fair called Digi Dhan Mela. As part of the mela, to encourage adoption of digital payments by local residents, booths and help centers will be set up by banks, mobile operators, mobile wallet companies where citizens can get apps downloaded and learn how to do digital transactions.
At the event huge public participation was seen thronging different stalls put up by various banks, telecom companies, Aadhaar and different departments of the state government and central government to gather first hand information about various digital schemes of the government of India.
The Lucky Grahak Yojana for consumers has a daily reward of Rs 1,000 to be given to 15,000 lucky Consumers for a period of 100 days; weekly prizes worth Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10,000 and Rs 5,000 for consumers who use the alternate modes of digital payments e.g. UPI, USSD, AEPS and RuPay Cards but will for the time being exclude transactions through private credit cards and digital wallets. The Digi Dhan Vyapari Yojana for merchants has prizes for digital transactions conducted at Merchant establishments. The weekly prizes are worth Rs 50,000, Rs 5,000 and Rs 2,500.
There will be a mega draw on April 14 i.e. Ambedkar Jayanti where 3 mega prizes for consumers worth Rs 1 crore, Rs 50 lakh, Rs 25 lakh for digital transactions between November 8, 2016 to April 13, 2017 to be announced on 14th April, 2017. There are 3 mega prizes for merchants worth Rs 50 lakh, Rs 25 lakh, Rs 12 lakh for digital transactions between November 8, 2016 to April 13, 2017 to be announced on April 14, 2017. To ensure that the focus of the scheme is on small transactions, incentives shall be restricted to transactions within the range of Rs 50 and Rs 3,000. All transactions between consumers and merchants; consumers and government agencies and all AEPS transactions will be considered for the incentive scheme. The estimated expenditure on the first phase of the scheme is likely to be Rs 340 crores.
Shrikant Sinha, CEO, NASSCOM Foundation
How NASSCOM is contributing to Digi Dhan Mela?
In Digi Dhan Mela, the most important work is to provide volunteering support to the people who walk-in. It is important for them to understand where the banks are located and also help the exhibitor with the technology. Our volunteers are also helping people to understand how to get on to the net and download the app. The reason behind this support is if you look at the IT industry today, if more and more underserved people become part of the Digital India then we would be very quickly move towards a developed nation. This Jan Dhan Mela is a step to realise the vision of Digital India.
Would you be participating in the Digi Dhan Mela organized by government in other cities?
We will be happy to support Digi Dhan Melas in other cities. Apart from this we have also launched a campaign “Each One, Teach One”. IT industry deploys around four million people and what by Each One, Teach One we can get more number of people in Digital India fold.
How will Digi Dhan Mela help prime minister’s Digital India Mission?
On one side we are already running digital literacy and helping them through over 150 centers to get people digitally literate but even if they are digitally literate and do not get on to the financial platforms they will still be left behind. That is where this is going to propel them to Digital India
Saqib Khan, AGM, Idea Money
Would you explain about Idea Money?
Idea Money is a platform which we are providing to the customer. Idea Money is a very easy to use interface for subscribers day to day needs. All kinds of payments like utilities, DTH, electricity, insurance etc are done by Idea Money. This is done by creating a wallet in the mobile number of the customer and it need not to be an Idea number. It can be of any operator. After creating the wallet, the customer can load in money in that and start using the services.
We have ensured that this wallet is not only available on smartphones but also on USSD platform. So a lot of feature phone users are also able to use this platform through USSD. We have also started making merchants in the market. If a customer goes to the shop and asks for the payment options and if Idea Money is available then he can pay through Idea money also. We are fully in support of government of India’s plan of going digital and moving towards cashless economy. We are very well geared up as we have huge distribution network throughout India not only in urban but also in rural areas.
How many subscribers do you have?
In Idea Money we have crossed around six and a half million and we are soon moving to seven million.
How do you see competition like Airtel Money, Jio Money and others?
The competition is good as it helps in creating awareness among the merchants. We have also started moving in the same space and we have been received very well in the market.
How secure are these platforms?
The platform is well secured as they are protected by two tiered security. At the time of registration it is secured by an OTP and at the time of transaction there is mpin to complete a payment.
How are you helping PM’s Digital India Mission?
This is a very good initiative by prime minister and whatever possible is being done by us and other operators. We are helping the customers by educating them not only through our channel but also through pre-paid channels.
Vipin Chopra, Vice President, Jio Money
Would you explain about Jio Money and what is its USP?
Jio Money is a very secure product because we have the security passwords for the customers. Without the security password no one can use Jio Money. Playstore customers can download Jio Money app, fill some columns and made their security passwords. So for any transaction the customer has to use the security password. It is a cashless journey for the customers.
Second we have an option for pay at shop. The customer can visit any retailer who accepts Jio Money and the only thing the customer needs to do is to click pay at shop and enter the mobile number after the name of the shopkeeper which will reflect and one can pay the desired amount.
We have a code creation offer i.e. when the customers download Jio money app he will get a voucher worth Rs 15,000 free of cost.
How can a merchant subscribe Jio money?
We have recently launched a merchant app. If any merchant wants to subscribe Jio money he can visit the playstore and download the app. After the download he has to mention the mandatory details on their wallet and a cancelled cheque. The merchant can take a picture of the cancelled cheque and upload into the system and within three minutes he will become a Jio Money merchant.
So we configure their account with the bank and the money directly goes to his bank account. We have another facility of code creation. If a customer wants to promote his shop we have a code creation facility. If he creates a code into his system then all the Jio money customers will get a notification.
How does Jio Money help government’s Digital India mission?
Due to demonetization most of the people is going through cash crunch and they have debit/credit card so they can upload their Jio money app and load it through cards and can pay the amount to any of the retailer.
Jaseel PC, Chief Manager, IT – Indian Bank
Would you brief us about Indian Bank mobile products?
We have two unique products. One is e-purse. It is a combination of wallet, debit card and gift card. For this you need to have an Indian Bank internet banking account. You can login to the account and create upto three virtual accounts. Each of the accounts will be issued with a debit card. Master card and can be used at shopping establishments, online transactions and ATM cash withdrawal as well. You can gift it to anybody whose name can be printed on the card. You can load it through internet banking and also can take it back as well.
We also have a mobile banking product called In Pay app where you have a unique feature of scan and pay. Consumer can walk into a merchant establishment and pay to the merchant. He will be provided with a QR code by the bank. He can be a customer of any bank. The person who have In Pay app can scan the QR code and make the payment.
How secure are these products?
We have OTP based validation for all the transactions. You have a password to login into In Pay, a password for making transaction and there is also an OTP based authentication. We are also providing another app called IB Smart Remote where you can control your debit card and credit card remotely. You can switch off the debit card and in Inpay internet banking and mobile banking can be switched off facility. You can switch it back to on status when you want to use it. So while it is switched off nobody can use it.
How does Indian Bank help in government of India’s Digital India mission?
We are going aggressively on this scan and pay application. In remote villages of Tamil Nadu, the street merchants are using our application. We are also canvassing PoS machines for rural, urban and semi-urban merchants.
Ankit Anand, Manager, Marketing, Payworld
Please tell us about the new device launched by Payworld?
It is a small MPoS device which can be connected through bluetooth to the smartphone. The device also act as a micro ATM and any debit or credit card can be accepted through this machine. The user can even withdraw any amount as per RBI norms.
How is Payworld new device useful for merchants?
In the current scenario due to demonetisation there is cash crunch and majority of the people are running out of cash. People are also facing many difficulties in withdrawing cash from ATMs to make payments in merchant outlets so these machines are working as a boon for them as the merchants can get these machines from Payworld and accept card payment.
How many machines have you sold and what is the cost of the machine?
After 8th November, we have sold 5,000 machines and nearly 1,000 orders are in plan as well. These machines costs around Rs 3,500 and there is a monthly rental of Rs 250 as well.
How will this device help government’s mission of Digital India?
As we all know government of India is promoting digital payments like PoS machines, debit/credit cards, e-wallets, UPI and USSD so once these machines get installed in merchant outlets, anyone can make cashless payments.
Ambarish Kumar Sharma, Manager, Oxigen
Would you talk about different products of Oxigen?
Oxygen is a 12 year old company which is into digital payments and it is easing the market by providing solution to go cashless. We have a revolutionary product called Super PoS which is a micro ATM basically which is very beneficial for the country right now. We also have Oxygen Wallet which facilitates payments without using cards. One distinguishing feature of the wallet is virtual Visa card. One can create a virtual visa card and use the wallet balance to create it. The benefit is it is completely risk free and is like a credit card. If you lose your credit card then your complete account is in risk but by virtual visa card the benefit is you create the card on your own so if you want to spend Rs 500 you can put it on the card through Oxygen Wallet. Once the amount is exhausted the account gets deleted. So there is no risk at all.
How are you helping prime minister’s Digital India Mission?
Super PoS is beneficial for the country because it encourages you to do cashless transaction. We also see long queues outside banks and ATMs, instead of that people can come to the retailer shop, deposit and withdraw money through this machine. So it is going to reduce the pain of the country. l
