National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) - Empowering India's Digital Payments System

We all know that the India is on the road to Digitization. In this digital era, we have an opportunity to change lives of billions of people, which was hard to imagine a couple of decades back. 

India is rapidly evolving into a digital giant. Rising smartphones penetration & internet access have set that Indian consumers stay connected. This is also reflected in the growth of digital banking payments. But do we know who is working in the background to make all this possible? Here I am introducing National Payments Corporation of India(NPCI), which represents the umbrella organization for all retail payments system in India.

Recently I was invited by NPCI for a Bloggers meet along with some renowned bloggers from Mumbai. The meet was aimed at a knowledge sharing session on current evolutions & ongoing trends in digital payment industry & how NPCI is helping India to become a Cashless country. This post will cover the introduction of NPCI & it's products which are used in the digital payment industry.

National Payments Corporation of India(NPCI):  

It was set up with the guidance and support of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Indian Banks’ Association. NPCI received the Certificate of Commencement of Business in April 2009. NPCI has 10 promoter banks. With the vision of globally the best payments network system, NPCI has understood the need of different requirements of the different mediums presents in the various digital transactions with the host of services and products that NPCI provides:  

RuPay:

RuPay is an Indian domestic card scheme conceived & launched by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). It covers three types of debit cards, credit cards, and prepaid cards. That offers worldwide access to all payment structures, issued by almost all major banks and accepted across all major PoS and online merchants in the nation. 

Unified Payments Interface (UPI): 

Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is an instant payment system developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). Now the cash transactions can be done in just a minute task with UPI. Download the UPI app on your mobile and if your mobile number is connected through your bank account, you're  good to access multiple bank features, access merging into a single mobile application.

Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM):  

BHIM provides you all year 24*7 access to send/collect any payments in simplest and secure ways. It allows the direct bank to bank account transfer using mobile number/ UPI ID / Aadhaar number/bank account number and IFSC code.

Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) (*99#): 

What if you don’t have internet access? Don’t worry, Just dial *99# from your mobile and transaction-related instructions menu will display on your mobile to use all banking services without internet. This feature is accessible through any GSM Telecom operator.It supports 12 regional language options including the English & Hindi for every common people across the nation. 

BHIM Aadhaar: 

A virtual extension of BHIM, this mobile application grants merchant to accept payments for their products and services by just verifying the customer’s biometrics. After scanning customers fingerprint the money gets debited instant from the customer’s bank account to merchant’s bank account.

I was completely surprised to see the work, which is being done under the umbrella of NPCI.

With the help of NPCI & its initiatives, India is all set to witness a massive growth in the adoption of digital payments in the coming years. It will eventually support transparency, becoming an indirect check on the presence of black money in the market, and thereby increasing the contribution to the country’s GDP.