NPCI starts a campaign for digital payments called ‘India pay safe’, asking people to ditch cash during coronavirus

• In order to get rid of germ-ridden cash, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is asking people to switch to digital payments.
• For the campaign, India Pay Safe, NPCI CEO Dilip Asbe shared a video and was soon joined by several other payment leaders.
• Earlier the Reserve Bank of India too had asked people to switch to digital payments.

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) started a campaign to boost digital payments, so that people will stop exchanging cash which could spread coronavirus. Called ‘India pay safe’, the campaign asked people to switch to digital payments.

NPCI CEO Dilip Asbe shared a video for the campaign



And, he was soon joined by several other digital payments leaders from Pine Labs, Amazon Payments and PhonePe.




As more and more people are staying home because of coronavirus, online transactions have seen a boost. Instead of venturing out, people are ordering food, groceries, everything online, and switching to digital payment methods.

India’s central bank the Reserve Bank of India too issued an alert asking people to use digital payments as much as possible.

"In the context of COVID 19, RBI and the government together are giving emphasis on encouraging digital payments. And over a period of time, various measures have already been taken to establish a safe, secure, stable and affordable retail payment system such as the National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) and the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS),” said RBI governor Shaktikanta Das at a press briefing on March 16.

In America too, where the number of coronavirus cases have shot up, people are switching to contactless payments. Meanwhile, reports say that in South Korea, its central bank – the Bank of Korea – was burning and disinfecting cash to stop the spread of the deadly virus.

“Not only will things change at individual level but even company level. Many companies have been undergoing a digital transformation, or promoting new technologies such as self-checkout (eg- lifestyle stores), will see more rapid adoption of digital payments to reduce the risks of transmitting the virus through human interactions,” said Mandar Agashe, MD and founder of Sarvatra Technologies.

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