DIGITAL PAYMENT PLATFORMS

                                                                                 

Why are we hesitating to make a payment online?

Why aren’t we genuinely willing to carry out an online transaction?

Why we Indians aren’t able to trust this plethora of online platforms so easily?

v India is gradually moving ahead in the direction of the accomplishment of a US $5 Trillion Economy and our government departments are striving very hard in order to make this blueprint into a permanent structure for the World to look upon.

v Achieving this feat wouldn’t be easy at all, as it carries lot many aspects which we as the citizens need to follow and perform upon. One of the most basic, yet technical aspect which we term as ‘online transactions’ play a crucial role in the progress of any economy. So, the question is, why do we still think twice during the process of financial digitisation?

v As we know, nothing in this world is permanent nor perfect. Every technical system or structure contains some or the other loopholes, which sometimes creates a huge disaster for the systems to handle. Yet, before discussing about the drawbacks of Online Transactions, we must take a look upon its benefits.

Convenience: Very since the revolution of online transactions has boomed in our country, we have slowly and gradually adopted this feasible way of performing our activities online. The ease of conducting online transactions is probably the biggest motivation for you to go digital. You no longer need to carry excessive cash and hurt your pockets.

Time-saving: Gone are the days when we used to stand in the long and tiring queue for depositing money in the bank accounts, for booking the railway and bus tickets at respective stations. Performing such activities online has resulted in great time saving for sure.

Lower Risk: In case your mobile phone or your credit card is stolen, you can easily block your mobile number and card by just filing a FIR. Although, the chances of recovery of your cash stolen remains very low. This is eventually very true while travelling as loss of cash and cards can cause heavy amount of inconvenience. Besides, if the future-based technology invents cards with biometric requirements, that would become a very safe option as it would be hell difficult to copy your details.

User-Friendly: The most important characteristic of online payment platforms is its easy and simple to access user-interface experience. The features offered are ready to adopt even by the common man.

v Although with perks of using online platforms, comes its disadvantages which obviously go hand in hand. A few of the threats, to be very clear are as below:

Security and Trust Issues: We Hindustani’s generally have a habit of exploring all the possible loopholes and negative characteristics before trying new stuff. The same happens with digitisation. Since, we Indians are culturally not very adaptive to such systems, sometimes, even well-educated class of the society run the risk of being trapped in frauds.

The fear of anonymous receivers: This point contains all the information which we send online about the transactions, bank account details, documents etc. All this information is stored in the database of the payment system. Now this directly means, that the agency now has access to all your data and you are at the risk of your data being shared or sold to third parties [happens only when the agency is a fraudster].

Poor internet connection: The most common drawback concerned regarding online payment platforms in our country is unavailability of proper internet sometimes. Due to the poor network, we fail to complete the process of performing any online activity. Hence, many a times, this has been resulted in unnecessarily deduction of money from our bank accounts, failure regarding receiving payments from other parties etc…

v How can we improve and drive growth towards digitisation in India? For achieving a cashless economy, improved telecom and communication is must. The deep penetration of Internet has already been established but it needs much improvements. Faster internet speed not only results in smooth functioning of digital platforms but also boosts the economy. THE FUTURE IS DIGITAL, hence we must strive hard. Moreover, availability of skilled manpower and entrepreneurship services are the need of the hour. 

    Proper infrastructure and the capability of handling the technical aspects is must as it requires patience and adaptability. Skilled labour is needed the most as India is a country with varied literacy levels. Hence, the government should first focus on improving the skills and abilities of the unemployed people and then introduce new reforms. Utmost care must be taken by the project managers and service providers that they plan accordingly and do not create a digital division of people leaving behind masses.