The Government of India (GoI) has recently declared that the country has recorded 89.5 million digital payments in 2022, surging ahead of China, South Korea, Brazil and Thailand. The data furnished by MyGovIndia suggests that India has done more digital payments than the rest of the countries combined, accounting for 46% of the real-time payments on the global map.
A reason for the increasing amount of digital payments is the easy access to internet and smartphones, even to the people living in the tier 2 and tier 3 cities. These cities now account for 60% of all digital payments, as e-commerce as finally seeped into these cities and has become the preferred mode of payment among the people.
Balaji Jagannathan, Co-founder and Director of leading recurring payment solutions provider Paycorp, feels that there is no surprise in India ranking above the other countries owing to the progress in relation to the national digital infrastructure
He said, “The credit for India’s progress in digital payments largely goes to the national digital infrastructure that has been developed over the past decade. This infrastructure has laid the foundation for seamless and secure transactions. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and other institutions have played a vital role in creating and implementing this infrastructure.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had previously claimed that India is the world leader in digital payments and that the rural economy is now changing. Reason being, the simple availability of several simple and practical digital payments options which has eased the mode of payments and improved the standard of living of the people. India is also one of the countries where internet is the cheapest. This is another factor which contributes to easy internet accessibility and higher digital payments.
IT companies have also played a big role in this feat by developing cutting-edge technology and solutions, which cater to the diverse needs of India’s population. The contribution of IT companies range from developing secure payment gateways to building mobile applications which propel the use of digital payments further.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) had previously praised India’s digital public infrastructure and said that India’s experience with the internet was a lesson to all the other countries to embark on their own digital transformation.
