Initiatives Taken To Make Feature Phones UPI Compatible: RBI Chief

Governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Shaktikanta Das has said that initiatives have been taken to make feature phones (keypad mobile phones) also operate the UPI payment system.

Shaktikanta Das made the remark while speaking at a program organised at Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya (DAVV) in Madhya Pradesh's Indore district on Friday.

"The upi payment system has been recognised as a great success internationally. It is one of the initiatives of the Reserve Bank with the solid support of the government without their support it would have not been possible. With the support of the government, RBI has been able to make the upi as the largest payment system in the world," the RBI governor said.

He also said that he was sharing information in his central board meeting on Friday that the number of transactions for the month in the UPI exceeded 10 billion in the month of August. The upi was started in September 2016 and then after the growth has been very steady and now it has crossed 10 billion. But that's not enough, it will grow further.

"We have encouraged digital payment but the main challenge on the upi is that it usually needs a smartphone but in our country a large number of people are using feature phones. We have launched some products to make feature phones to operate the UPI system as well. We have also taken steps to ensure that in areas where there is poor connectivity a wallet, kind of facility through which one can make transactions on the UPI," he added.

"We are also among the few countries which have actually launched a pilot project on CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) that is e-rupee. It is nothing but just like paper currency and it is a digital unit of the currency. The pilot project is already in operation and a lot of trials are going on," Governor Shaktikanta Das further said.

Meanwhile, talking about the inflation he said that the latest inflation print which was released for the month of July on August 14 was quite high which was 7.4 pc. It has taken everybody by surprise but they were expecting the inflation to be substantially higher mainly because of vegetable prices. The tomato prices went up by over 200% and then the impact of the increase of tomato prices went straight to other vegetables so on the whole the vegetable inflation went up.

The impact of the vegetable prices which has gone up, they expect to start moderating it from September onwards. In fact the prices of tomatoes have come down, the government has initiated a number of supplies and measures to make tomatoes available in deficient areas at reasonable prices. They expect overall inflation rate to start getting moderate from September onwards, August inflation rate will be again very high but they expect from September the inflation rate to go down, he added.

Besides talking about the GDP, Shaktikanta Das said, "India is the fastest growing nation in economy now, this has become possible because of the well coordinated action between the Government and the Reserve Bank. The GDP recorded in the April to June quarter of financial year 2023-24 is 7.8 % which is one of the highest. The NPA (Non-Performing Assets) which used to be around 11 percent has now reduced to 3.9 percent."

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