Panel focuses on virtual payments
The first meeting of the Committee of Chief Ministers formed to examine and implement measures to implement digital payment systems in the country, following the demonetisation announced by the Prime Minister, last month, has laid emphasis on the supply side in its first meeting at Mumbai on Thursday.
​New Delhi: The first meeting of the Committee of Chief Ministers formed to examine and implement measures to implement digital payment systems in the country, following the demonetisation announced by the Prime Minister, last month, has laid emphasis on the supply side in its first meeting at Mumbai on Thursday.
Addressing a press conference here later, convenor of the committee N Chandrababu Naidu and NITI Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya, said the committee brought together all players on the supply side together to leapfrog the country into the digital payment world.
They said the IT department had been asked to develop a technology whereby adding a small device to Android phones everyone could upgrade to digital payments system without much difficulty.
Aadhar- based POS (Point of Sale) machines would be vital to this and in the absence of the POS machines, hand-held smart phones could transform the lives of people.
The meeting held with bankers and the RBI top brass on Thursday focused on convergence of technologies and decided to involve all district collectors in the country to extend the digital economy mode to the rural India too quickly.
Unified Payment Interface (UPI) for making virtual payments should become interportable and the NCPI (National Payments Corporation of India), the umbrella organisation for all retail payment systems in India, was working on linking all banks with QR codes and all mobiles with Aadhar-based App so that even those out of the banking system would be able to make payments.
Apart from fingerprint technology, the iris technology too could be incorporated to make the smart phone ones Aadhaar-linked mobile bank with the App to be developed, he said.
Hoping that the committee would be able to come up with its interim report by this weekend or early next week, Naidu said moving over the digital economy was a must and the country could not lag behind.
Asked whether the States opposing the demonetisation would also fall in line he said "they will have to. It is for the benefit of everyone and all citizens.
