E-Rupi

-

 

Last year, the government launched the digital payment solution e-RUPI, which has the potential to impact 190 million lives. It is a cashless and contactless instrument for digital payment, and people don’t even need a bank account to use it. Are you curious to know? 

  • What is e-RUPI? 

  • Why is it a win-win for all?

  • What are some of the challenges associated with e-Rupi?


e-RUPI has been developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which oversees the digital payments ecosystem. It has been developed in collaboration with the Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, and National Health Authority.


NCPI has partnered with various banks and apps for e-RUPI. 

 


What is e-RUPI?


It is a “person and purpose-specific” digital payment solution. Let's elaborate on each word and understand it better. 


Person specific - Beneficiaries will get a digital voucher-E rupi on their phone via SMS or QR code. 


Purpose specific - An e-RUPI is a prepaid voucher that can be created for a particular requirement. For instance, if the government wants to cover a specific treatment for an employee in a specific hospital, it can issue this voucher for the determined amount through the partner bank.


Do you remember gift vouchers? I am sure you do, I used to love them as we could get a service or product at a discount or for free. e-RUPI is just like that, but it’s just better. It's a digital, cashless, contactless voucher, and you don’t need a card, Internet banking access, or even a digital payment app.


Why is it a win-win for all?


For organizations or governments: As e-RUPI is created for a specific purpose, mainly for welfare schemes, this makes sure that it gets used only for that and not for any other purposes. It is end-to-end digital and does not need any physical operation process, making it quick to distribute and easy to track.


For the merchants, they get the amount instantly from the consumer without any intermediary.


For the consumer, they don’t need to carry a printout of vouchers, and they don't need to have net banking or even a bank account. e-RUPI can be operated on basic phones too; hence, it can be used by people who do not own smartphones or in places that lack an internet connection.


What are some of the challenges associated with e-Rupi?


Like most government schemes, it is focused on disadvantaged and weaker sections, but not all of these people have access to phones. Plus, beneficiaries are not required to disclose their identity while redeeming them, so these vouchers are also likely to be claimed by anyone who may have the beneficiary's phone. 


The United States, South Korea, and numerous other nations have employed similar voucher-based incentives for welfare services, but none to the extent that India is. 


Some complications may arise during implementation, but if done right, 190 million unbanked people in India will be able to benefit from various government social systems. Yes, 190 million! That’s the scale of impact that e-RUPI can have.



HAPPY INVESTING.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Behavioral Biases

-
Image
I always thought and will always believe that investments are and will always remain an eclectic field. It is not restricted to ideas from the field of commerce, and that's what magnifies its beauty. Various ideas can be borrowed and successfully applied to the investment world, which can help you get the kind of return you want. One such field that has an overwhelming effect on your investments is psychology. In fact, the importance of psychology is such that when I asked an investor what I needed to understand prior to stepping into the investment world, to my surprise, he said commodities and psychology. 4 Years into the journey and I can't stop stressing upon the importance of psychology.  Psychology is the protagonist that fuels the bull markets and creates bubbles like the tuple mania from 1673 or the recent Adani frenzy in 2020. It is also the protagonist that caused the Y2K fall or the 2008 crash. Believe it or not, psychology does give a rational and unemotional invest
Read more

Joys of Compounding (Part 1)

-
Image
Being a book worm, I have come across many books that I thought were stupid buys but later turned out to be one of the best investments. But the book that I am going to talk about today was nothing like what I described above. This book was an impulse buy, knowing that it was going to be one of the best books I have ever read. You would hardly come across a book that talks about investments, knowledge, trading strategies, and life lessons with the same intensity and importance. Well, if you have authors like Gautam Baid writing books, you can expect the book to be a masterclass for value investors. The book that I am going to talk about has literally one thing that the author tries to relate to various aspects of life. That one thing, my friend, is what Einstein called the 8th wonder of the world. You guessed it. The concept around which the book hovers is compounding, and the name of the book is Joys of Compounding .  Apart from sharing love for investments, money, running businesses,
Read more

A patriot's perspective.

-
Image
With 28 states, 7 union territories, 140 crore people, and 1.77 million homeless people to feed on a daily basis, India still survived one of the most brutal pandemics and now stands as the 4th largest economy in the world. When I first heard about the pandemic, I thought that India would suffer the most, considering our size and population. Even before the pandemic erupted, the Indian economy was on a downward spiral. GST collections were below Rs 1 lakh crore, external debt had increased by 8 percentage points, and GDP had decelerated for 6 consecutive quarters. I thought that the pandemic would be the final blow to our economic situation, leaving us helpless and needy like Greece after the 2008 crisis.  But what India has turned out to be is something that even Gandhi would not have believed if he were alive. 4th largest economy, world's largest derivatives exchange, 4th largest cash exchange, largest population, dominant exporter of agricultural products, biggest railway networ
Read more