Graphic: Trends in digital finance

Digital financial inclusion played a crucial role in financial inclusion in 2017, as it acquired a greater role after demonetisation, according to the Inclusive Finance India Report 2017, authored by M S Sriram of Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, and published by ACCESS Development Service and SAGE Publications. 

Use of digital financial infrastructure is growing. With more investment by banks in the overall infrastructure, it will aid in financial inclusion, the report said. Business Standard takes a look at the trend observed over a recent period of time in digital finance

Growth in UPI and BHIM transactions

The number of transactions and volumes of UPI picked pace. But there were multiple problems observed in the acceptance of the concept such as inadequate incentives to use the application, call charges on mobile phones and inability to schedule payments

Technology-enabled transactions 

Even as UPI transactions are picking up, ATMs and point-of-sale (PoS) devices were still the commonly used transaction methods. While transactions at PoS substantially went up, those at ATMs fell due to paucity of cash

Mobile transactions

There has been an exponential growth in mobile phone-based transactions over the years. However, the digital divide between urban and rural areas is huge. While the number of telephone connections per individual till March 2017 stood at 1.6 in urban areas, it was 5.6 in rural areas.

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Source: Inclusive Finance India Report 2017 — Authored by M S Sriram and published by ACCESS Development Service and SAGE Publications