One thing about UPI I can say: It’s WHITE. Transactions are in white as they are real time transactions. When Aadhar ID is involved, the spending becomes legal and tax assessable. I really appreciate Modi govt for trying to make as much financial transactions across the country as possible into accountable ones. Aadhar is linked to our PAN (personal identification number for income tax assessment). This is a very clever move ever to be made by an Indian govt linking Aadhar, PAN, bank accounts, etc. Registration of documents, real estate, jewelry shopping everything requires furnishing of your PAN. You cannot even book a foreign holiday without your PAN. Cannot open a FD or trade in stocks. Yet I must say our politicians are loaded with black money! Still good efforts on the part of the govt in trying to make every penny in the economy accountable on a mission to eliminate a parallel operating black economy. This is good for the health of the nation.
This post is over a decade delayed but I thought this video is well made. Digilocker and Digiyatra apps are extremely useful and secure to have in your phone to lock your documents and access them in airports, etc., with ease, doing away with physical documents.
I am someone who stops in the highway under a coconut tree to drink fresh tender coconut water. The scanner is printed right on the coconut tree hahaha! UPI is that cool! From the street flower vendor to the subzi vendor, everyone uses UPI, being even illiterates. You cannot be using credit card everywhere. UPI steps in here. As the video says, these sophisticated apps cannot be reserved for the elite. Their reachability to masses is what makes them use applications.
In the US etc., I see how the malls, huge departmental stores like Walmart, supermarkets, the strip malls etc., have taken over the petty shops forcing them to close. Whereas the kirana shops or the petty shopkeepers and small traders constitute the backbone of the Indian economy. A huge real time accountable economic turnover happens thanks to them. Earlier, paper currency made a sizeable chunk of such transactions impossible to account for. Now UPI brings everything under tax scanner and accountable. For a nation to develop along right lines, transparent legal financial transactions is a must. Even if corruption continues to affect Indian public services, to a large extent, UPI has made life easier for the masses.
Even for wedding gifts I see the QR code printed somewhere in the wedding halls that the guests can use of.
One point missed by everyone: America runs on credit. They accept credit card payment even for one dollar. In India, under a certain limit, credit card payments are denied. Cash payments are a must. UPI is useful and handy here. It means there is NO CREDIT. Of course you can link your credit card to UPI as well. But a majority of rural artisans etc., who barely have a single bank account do not even own credit cards. Thus the credit chain is eliminated 90% with UPI payments. That itself is a huge plus to an economy. Real time payments may not work in America because except the creamy layer there, others live totally on credit. In third world nations, there is no credit culture at least in the lowest tiers of the economy.
Other than that, we pay our bills, recharge, pay our taxes etc., etc., via UPI setting even reminders. Its a very useful kit/app in your phone. Cannot imagine life without UPI now! The services are only increasing day by day.
I have to say this here: I took a Rapido the other day. The fare was 187 rs. The cab driver asked me to round it to 200 rs. Immediately a voice came over as his speaker was on. It asked the cab driver not to demand extra fare from me. He was caught redhanded on real time surveillance! But I quietly still paid him 200 rs by UPI only, because I thought his demand was just. There was heavy traffic and we were caught in a jam for over 10-15 minutes. He asked me to take care of his rating. I gave 5 star rating because his driving was good.
vijiravindran's 