Abstract:
Government of India, Ministry of Finance (Department of Economic Affairs) on February 29, 2016 came out with cabinet approved guidelines for the Promotion of Payments through Cards and Digital means. Alongside, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on March 8, 2016 came out with a Concept Paper on Card Acceptance Infrastructure. These two documents provide some directions on how one could possibly set catalysts to migrate the country from cash dominated society to an electronic payment embracing society. In the absence of clear thrust points and regulations, till now most of the developments in payment systems had been market driven. However, RBI did play a significant role in ensuring that prudent controls are put in place for mitigating risks associated with electronic payments.
Though there had been few technical reports that the author had produced over the past few years, which brought in some thought provoking insights for the payment system of India, the current report analyses the pros and cons of the directions set forth in the above two documents, provides implementable solutions for some of the issues raised and makes suggestions on the path ahead for digitalising payments in India.
