IIT Madras To Provide Technical Expertise To Boost Digital Money Transactions In India

IIT Madras researchers have announced their collaboration with members of the Mobile Payment Forum of India (MPFI) to develop voice-based solutions, especially in multiple vernacular languages for digital money transactions in the country.

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras researchers have announced their collaboration with members of the Mobile Payment Forum of India (MPFI) to develop voice-based solutions, especially in multiple vernacular languages for digital money transactions in the country. At present, as per the Government of India’s statistics, there are more than 100 million active UPI users every month in India. MPFI aims at bringing 500 million active users onto the UPI payment platforms by 2025. The Government of India, in the last budget, had allocated Rs 1,500 crore to help drive the adoption of digital payments in the country. The MPFI is working to identify innovation across three levels; Human behavior and adoption, Technology (design and safeguards), and policy (a data-centric view), to propel India over the next decade. Explaining the importance of digital transactions during this pandemic period, Dr Gaurav Raina, Faculty, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Madras, and Chairman, MPFI, said, “Digital and mobile payments, and in particular contactless payments, are important not just from an efficiency point of view, but also to mitigate risk against COVID-19. It provides a great opportunity to help yourself and also the ecosystem.” Further, adding on the ways in which IIT Madras will bring its expertise in coordination with other stakeholders, Dr Raina, said, “This is the perfect time to build research collaborations to work towards solutions which will be cutting edge and will also be truly impactful, at scale, within India. Such research-based solutions can help India lead the way globally in the delivery of mobile-based financial services.”