Are digital payments secure enough for the India economy to go cashless
For –
• India is a country where majority of the transactions happen through cash, the transition from
cash to cashless economy is not a cakewalk.
• Since the government is laying so much emphasis on the digital payments, it is the need of the
hour that the government should implement the strategy very wisely giving enough time to
the existing structure to change gradually.
• The government should first make the laws so strict and severe so that the people are afraid of
doing frauds of even very small amounts.
• The government needs to invest heavily to make the cyber infrastructure secure and risk free.
There is a hidden war between the bankers and the government where the success of the
former will decide the future of the cash to cashless economy.
• Since a lot of people depend on others to teach them to use the digital payment services, the
government should take initiatives to educate the people in this regard.
• The reserve bank of India should quantify the minimum standards for the infrastructure
required to maintain risk free payment mechanisms.
•Benefits of Cashless economy
• Reduced instances of tax avoidance because it is financial institutions based economy
where transaction trails are left.
• It will curb generation of black money
• Will reduce real estate prices because of curbs on black money as most of black
money is invested in Real estate prices which inflates the prices of Real estate
markets
• In Financial year 2015, RBI spent Rs 27 billion on just the activity of currency
issuance and management. This could be avoided if we become cashless society.
• It will pave way for universal availability of banking services to all as no physical
infrastructure is needed other than digital.
• There will be greater efficiency in welfare programmers as money is wired directly
into the accounts of recipients. Thus once money is transferred directly into a
beneficiary’s bank account, the entire process becomes transparent. Payments can be
easily traced and collected, and corruption will automatically drop, so people will no
longer have to pay to collect what is rightfully theirs.
• There will be efficiency gains as transaction costs across the economy should also
come down.
• 1 in 7 notes is supposed to be fake, which has a huge negative impact on economy, by
going cashless, that can be avoided.
• Hygiene – Soiled, tobacco stained notes full of germs are a norm in India. There are
many such incidents in our life where we knowingly or unknowingly give and take
