Govt. to constitute CMs' panel on implementation of digital payment systems

Aiming to boost the adoption of digital payments systems by people at the grass-root levels and small businesses, the government has decided to constitute a committee of Chief Ministers representing different political parties to examine and implement measures to implement digital payment systems to promote transparency, financial inclusion and ensure a healthy financial ecosystem.

The committee, which will also include experts as special invitees, will comprise Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu as convener; Odisha's Naveen Patnaik, Madhya Pradesh's Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Sikkim's Pawan Kumar Chamling; Puducherry's V. Narayanasamy, Maharashtra's Devendra Fadnavis and NITI Aayog vice- chairman Arvind Panagariya as its members.

The committee will also include NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant as member secretary; UIDAI former chairman Nandan Nilekani as special invitee; Boston Consulting Group chairman Janmejaya Sinha as special invitee; netCORE Managing Director Rajesh Jain as special invitee;

iSPIRIT co-founder Sharad Sharma as special invitee; and Professor (Finance), IIM (Ahmedabad), Dr Jayant Varma as special invitee.

As per the Terms of Reference, the committee will identify the global best practices for implementing an economy primarily based on digital payment and examine the possibility of adoption of these global standards in the Indian context.

It will also identify and outline measures for rapid expansion and adoption of the system of digital payments like cards (Debit, Credit and pre-paid), Digital-wallets/ E-wallets, internet banking, Unified Payments Interface (UPI), banking apps etc. and shall broadly indicate the road map to be implemented in one year.

It will evolve an action plan to reach out to the public at large with the objective to create awareness and help them understand the benefits of such a switchover to digital economy and prepare a roadmap for the administrative machineries in the states to facilitate adoption of digital modes of financial transactions.

The committee will identify and address bottlenecks and indicate solutions pertaining to adoption of the steps required to move towards a digital payments economy and associate the key stakeholders for implementation of the suggested steps towards a digital payments economy.

Besides, it will delineate and adopt measures evolved by the Committee of Officers constituted for the purpose.

The committee will also examine and address any other associated issues, which are not specifically mentioned herein. The committee may devise its own procedures for conducting business/ meetings/ constitution of sub-groups etc.

The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog, which was entrusted with the task of undertaking a campaign to implement digital payments systems, has been working on an awareness campaign to popularise the different modes of digital payment that are currently available viz. Cards, USSD, digital wallets, Aadhar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) and Unified Payment Interface (UPI).