PM hails digital transactions transformation of India: 19x growth, open 24/7/12

Digital transactions in India jumped 19x, says PM Narendra ModiCentre opens government bonds to individual buyers

"UPI has become the world's leading country in terms of digital transactions in a very short span of time," PM Narendra Modi said on Friday. (PTI)

The digital transaction trend that was growing over the years slowly, but surely, started to grow by leaps and bounds after the Covid-19 pandemic forced the public indoors and everyone who could started going as much cashless as was possible. Now the figures are in and it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday who provided the figures. While lauding the use of Unified Payments Interface (UPI), PM Modi, speaking at the launch of two customer-centric initiatives of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), said that digital transactions in India have jumped a whopping 19 times in just the last 7 years.

No longer an exclusive club

"UPI has made India the world's leading country in terms of digital transactions in a very short span of time. In just seven years, digital transactions in India have jumped 19 times. Today our banking system is operational 24 hours, 7 days and 12 months anytime, anywhere in the country," PM Modi said.

PM Modi highlighted the difference between now and what was once the situation of the country in this segment of the economy.

"Till 6-7 years ago, banking, pension, insurance, everything used to be like an 'exclusive club in India'. Common citizens of the country, poor families, farmers, small traders-businessmen, women, Dalits-deprived-backwards, all these facilities were far away for all of them," PM Modi added.

"The people who had the responsibility of taking these facilities to the poor also never paid any attention to it. Rather, various excuses were made for not changing. It was said that there is no bank branch, no staff, no internet, no awareness," the Prime Minister said.

Cooperative banks

PM Modi also took this opportunity to highlight the changes that have occurred elsewhere in the banking sector. He had fulsome praise for the transformation that was made possible in the realm of cooperative banks and its role in strengthening the banking sector.

"To further strengthen the banking sector, cooperative banks were also brought under the purview of RBI. Due to this the governance of these banks is also improving and the trust in this system is getting stronger even among the lakhs of depositors who are there," he said.

Reserve Bank of India Initiatives

During the occasion, PM Modi launched 2 customer-centric initiatives of the RBI. One is the RBI Retail Direct Scheme, which is aimed at enhancing access to the government securities market for retail investors. They can now directly invest in securities issued by the Government of India and the State Governments through this tool. In effect, Centre has opened government bonds to individual buyers or investors. 

Investors will be able to easily open and maintain their government securities account online with the RBI. What is more, the entire thing is possible free of cost.

The second RBI initiative was also customer-centric - Integrated Ombudsman Scheme. Its goal is to further improve the grievance redress mechanism for resolving customer complaints against entities regulated by RBI. The central theme of the scheme is based on 'One Nation-One Ombudsman' with one portal, one email and one address for the customers to lodge their complaints. Also provided is a multi-lingual toll-free number that will provide relevant information on grievance redress and assistance for filing complaints.