Digital Payments, The Need Of The Hour In This Pandemic

The government is actively pushing people to adopt digital payments at present. If earlier, it was for convenience, now with social distancing amid the COVID-19 crisis, it has become mandatory, says Dilip Asbe, MD & CEO, NPCI in a freewheeling interview with Arindam Mukherjee. Edited excerpts: What kind of growth has the digital payments industry seen in the last two months, ever since the pandemic and lockdown have started? The offline-to-online switch in payments has been long in coming, however there has been an accelerated shift in consumer behaviour in the recent lockdown scenario due to COVID-19. NPCI has been urging and reaching out to consumers and all service providers of essential services to switch to digital payment methods to stay protected. We are seeing growth in essential categories, online donations, and entertainment on the OTT medium. There has been a dip in...