India

National Payments Corporation of India and the remaking of payments in India

The paper examines the role NPCI played in transforming the way India manages financial transactions, as well as what lessons can be learned from India’s experience.

Can India Post rise up to the digital payments and financial inclusion challenge?

On 19 August 2015, the Reserve Bank of India approved licenses for eleven institutions to set up payment banks. The purpose was to have these banks further financial inclusion by providing s…

India Anuncia Nueva Sociedad para Acelerar la Inclusión Financiera

El Gobierno de la India se une a la Alianza Better Than Cash de las Naciones Unidas para compartir los éxitos del programa de inclusión financiera más grande del mundo…

India Announces New Partnership to Accelerate Financial Inclusion for Everyone

Government of India joins the United Nations’ Better Than Cash Alliance to share success stories from the world’s largest financial inclusion programme…

The Government of India joins the Better Than Cash Alliance

The Government of India has joined the UN-based Better Than Cash Alliance in an extension of the Indian Government’s commitment to reduce cash in its economy.

Tidhar Wald discusses India’s success in promoting digital payments

India’s digital future

India was already on a path to growth, but the country’s drive toward digitization may put it on track to be the world’s fastest growing economy over the next decade. Buoyed by demographics,…

Aadhaar & Blockchain: opportunities and challenges for India

In India, the inability to prove one’s identity is one of the biggest barriers that prevents the poor from accessing benefits and subsidies. India is a country with 1.3 billion residents in …

Imagining Trillion Dollar Digital India

The document presents a vision for how India’s digital economy can unlock productivity and value – through transformative infrastructure, applications and ecosystems. It also outlines iconic…

Better Than Cash Alliance lauds India’s push for digital payments, Aadhaar

Branchless banking: Evaluating the doorstep delivery of financial services in rural India

This paper evaluates the effect on household savings of India’s recent financial inclusion drive, a drive that generated an unprecedented increase in access to financial institutions by usin…

Saving by Default: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Rural India

Access to banks is rapidly increasing worldwide, and allows account-based instead of cash transfers. We conduct a randomized experiment documenting the impact of the payment method on saving…

Financial inclusion, a driver of state building in India and Mexico?

This article situates latest trends within the evolution of Indian and Mexican social policies and discusses how on one hand financial inclusion policies allow vulnerable populations to access new rights while resulting in new ways of controlling consumer behavior.

Digital India

What measures can businesses, governments, and individuals take to make a smooth transition into the digital economy? Read this in-depth analysis by McKinsey that details the state of digitization in the country and the pace at which it is happening. 

What explains low adoption of digital payment technologies? Evidence from small-scale merchants in Jaipur, India

New research from India states that low adoption of digital payments among small retailers is not a result of supply-side barriers, such as affordability and availability. It is due to deman…

The Ups and Downs of India’s Digital Transformation

Indian economy is operating at an estimated $33 billion less cash than it would have without demonetization. Income tax buoyancy is at a decade high of 2.20. This Harvard Business Review art…

“Payment and Settlement Systems in India: Vision 2019 – 2021

With an aim to create a cash-lite economy, the Reserve Bank of India has published its “Payments System Vision 2021.” The document can be a useful resource for members like Ghana who are wor…

Near-term impact of India’s demonetization

New Harvard University paper looks at the impact of demonetization on the Indian economy. It finds that, in the near-term, the event led to “temporary reductions in employment, output, and credit.” But “there may be potential longer-term benefits” in several areas, including tax collection.

Impact of demonetization on diffusion of mobile payment service in India: Antecedents of behavioral intention and adoption using extended UTAUT model

The paper shows that behavioral intention, demonetization and facilitating conditions have a positive impact on the adoption of mobile payment services in India.