Budget 2023: Striding toward a cashless, inclusive India with UPI and digital public infrastructure

The key developments and announcements from Budget 2023-24 hint at the government’s goal of achieving a stronger economy supported by digital payments. As announced in the Budget, digital payments in India saw a significant rise by volume and value. As per the recent Economic Survey 2022-23, UPI transactions accounted for 52 percent of the total 8,840 crore financial digital transactions with a total value of Rs126 lakh crore. This achievement is a big milestone for India as it will help in strengthening the economy by promoting digital payments across the country, thereby ensuring financial inclusiveness. Initiatives including the extension of Bharat Bill Payments System for NRIs, approval of Rs 2,600 crores incentive scheme for FY24 for RuPay debit card and UPI transactions, and growing digital payment acceptance with digital infrastructure have given a big boost to digital payments via UPI in India as well as global level. 5G to boost financial sector The government is aiming to set up 100 5G labs for developing new apps, which will give a major boost to the startups and agri-tech ecosystems in the country. With the 5G technology in place, it will provide a fillip to the financial sector, ensuring faster and more efficient digital transactions. The government also announced its priorities during the Budget, which include the use of innovative technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its plan on establishing three centres of excellence for AI. Innovative digital technologies like AI, and Machine Learning are a big step towards promoting financial inclusion in India, enabling industries across sectors to become accessible to a wider section of the population. This will result in boosting service delivery and enable various sections of society to actively participate in financial ecosystems. India as a country has been vigilant yet very progressive when it comes to the adoption of new technologies in the financial space. The 2023 Global Innovation Report by FIS, also shows similar sentiments reflected by the Indian businesses, who look forward to embracing the next generation of financial technologies such as embedded finance, and ESG among others to help fuel new growth in digital channels. With announcements around strengthening the economy with technological capabilities, and bolstering the existing digital public infrastructure including Aadhaar, PM Jan Dhan Yojna, video KYC, India Stack, and UPI, India is set to take promising steps towards becoming a financially inclusive nation. The writer is Head of Banking and Payments, India and Philippines, FIS. She tweets @FISGlobal Views expressed are personal.  Read all the Latest News , Trending News ,  Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.