Demonetisation: Indian people's pain, Jack Ma's gain

The Dollar Business Bureau

Demonetisation has created a crisis in the country owing to the severe lack of cash in the hands of consumers. However, it has also given rise to new opportunities or new ways to survive with minimal cash. Rural areas in India are opting for the kaam chalao barter system whereas the urban smartphone-trendy populace is turning to plastic money and ‘e-wallets’. The rising use of e-wallets has come as a windfall for the Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba Group and the 40% shareholder in PayTm. Paytm is one of the most popular e-wallets in India and has seen a burgeoning rise in recent times with over 6 lakh new users daily coming under its fold. 

The Indian government has come up with a high-profile mobile application called United Payment Interface (UPI). Launched by the National Payments Corporation of India (NCPI) with RBI, on April 11, 2016, UPI is an application that powers multiple banking accounts, has banking features like funds transfer and merchant payments. 

Though it is still to catch up with the pace and fame of Paytm, UPI has those special features that address the need of an Indian banking customer.

Foremost among them being a ‘one-time linking to a bank account without the need to feed details with every use.” In other words, if you register on UPI with any bank, your ID can be used for all the banks coming under its architecture process. And most importantly the banking limit goes up to Rs.1lakh! 

Though Paytm has been around for some time now, one should be aware that it ‘acts as a go-between the user and the bank’. Though it comes handy for its simple usage, one must keep refilling it to make payments, which may not be the safest option for those who have just learned how to navigate an e-wallet. And the banking limit or transaction limit is just Rs.10,000. 

The question arises what should UPI do to give other e-wallets a run for their money? Simple, it should be on every mobile user in India.