Andhra Pradesh empowers over 15,000 village and ward secretariats with UPI

To encourage financial inclusion and push for digital payments, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh YS Jaganmohan Reddy announced an initiative on August 17 to boost digital payments in 15,004 village and ward secretariats of the state. 

The drive, which has been launched in association with National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) and Canara Bank, is being seen as a progressive move to enable rural folk to go cashless through United Payments Interface (UPI). 

Speaking on the occasion, CM YS Jaganmohan Reddy said, 

“I am glad to announce this landmark initiative of digitising over 15,004 village secretariats and ward secretariats. This initiative, in association with NPCI and Canara Bank, is a testament to AP's supreme digital capabilities and technological innovation that is empowering the rural population. I am confident that UPI will enable numerous villagers to perform convenience and hassle-free cashless transactions.” 

The introduction of QR codes for the facilitation of payments is expected to lay the foundation for hassle-free, safe and convenient transactions, and also empower thousands of villagers. 

To execute a UPI transaction, the concerned customer is first required to file a request, after which a pop QR code will be generated immediately on the computer screen at the village or ward secretariats, signalling that the money needs to be collected.  

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The customer can then scan the UPI QR code through any UPI enabled application on their mobile phone or a digital device, and verify the payment. Once this is complete, a message validating the transaction is sent to the patron’s mobile number. In addition to this, the state government has mandated a Digital Assistant to help the customers make UPI payments smoothly and adapt to the new method. 

With the coronavirus pandemic infusing a sense of economic uncertainty both for individuals and business organisations, depending on banks for day-to-day transactions is not becoming a sustainable option. Hence, shifting towards digital payments is not only the need of the hour, but is also imperative to ensuring protected and contact less payments.  

Reinstating this, Dilip Asbe, the MD and CEO of NPCI, said, 

“We believe that equipping rural India with digital infrastructure and technology will create last-mile penetration, and help in the evolution of the digital payments space. And, UPI has garnered tremendous momentum especially during the pandemic – 149 crore transactions, a record-breaking number, was undertaken in the month of July alone. Hence, this is definitely a historic move by the AP government and we at NPCI are glad to be a part of it.”