Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das launched the "Har Payment Digital" (HPD) mission on Monday, as part of the Digital Payments Awareness Week (DPAW) 2023. The mission aims to make every citizen in India a user of digital payments. ‘Adopt digital payments and Teach others also’ is the theme for the awareness week.
While digital payments have increased significantly in India over the past few years, a significant portion of the population still does not use digital payments for day-to-day transactions. In an RBI survey of 90,000 respondents, 42% said they had used digital payments, 35% said they were aware of digital payments but did not use them, and 23% were not aware of digital payments.
The RBI believes that it is necessary to create more awareness and increase the usage of digital payments, considering the benefits that they bring to the country. The DPAW campaign is part of the continuous efforts towards increasing financial awareness.
The HPD mission will run until the period of Vision 2025, to convert non-users into users of digital payments. Vision 2025 has its theme "E-Payments for Everyone, Everywhere and Everytime".
RBI, in collaboration with banks and other stakeholders of the payment systems, will carry out a multimodal campaign covering print, television, radio and social media during the week around the theme. The campaign will encourage digital payment users to teach non-users about the ease, safety and convenience of digital payments to fulfil the mission of making every citizen a digital payments user.
The RBI has planned various campaigns, including "Jan Bhagidari'' or mass-scale people involvement programs to enhance awareness on a large scale about the mission and the campaign's theme. 75 villages across the country would be adopted by payment system operators. These villages will be converted into digital payment-enabled villages. These villages would be distinct from those in the districts covered under the Digital Banking Units (DBUs); Expanding and Deepening of Digital Payments Ecosystem (EDDPE); and the Aspirational Districts Program.
FAQs:
Q1: What is the Har Payment Digital mission?
The Har Payment Digital (HPD) mission is an initiative launched by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to make every citizen in India a user of digital payments.
Q2: What is Digital Payments Awareness Week?
Digital Payments Awareness Week (DPAW) is an initiative by the RBI to create more awareness and increase the usage of digital payments in India. It is part of the continuous efforts towards increasing financial awareness.
