NEW DELHI: As India marches forward as one of the fastest-growing nations in terms of digital payments, Meghalaya and other Northeastern states in general, however, lag behind.
Northeastern states of Meghalaya, Mizoram and Manipur (irrespective of order) have recorded the lowest digital transactions, according to official sources.
According to Payment gateway CC Avenue’s CEO, English language familiarity, availability of good bandwidth, banking and financial infrastructure, internet service, communication devices and 24×7 power supply have been the key differentiators at the state level.
In North East, barring knowledge of English, all other factors seem to be lacking.
According to Digidhan database, maintained by the IT ministry, Indians averaged about 3.85 digital transactions per person between July 2019 and July 2020. But there has been a stark difference in terms of the rate of adoption across states.
While Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra have been recording the highest number of transactions per person, Chhattisgarh and Jammu & Kashmir have been amongst the states with lowest transactions.
The Digidhan database keeps a tab on all digital transactions across National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) operated channels — RuPay cards, UPI interface BHIM, and Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), mobile transfers.
The data mentioned above was collected between June 2019 and July 2020.
When a payment is made involving the two parties both using digital modes to send and receive money, it is called digital payment, also called electronic payment.
It increases accountability and tracking, lessening the risk of corruption and theft.
Although cash is deeply embedded in the payment systems in India, planned efforts post-demonetisation have shown a marked shift from cash to digital payments, a Reserve Bank report said.