A third of Indian households use digital payments, with usage spread across income groups, according to a survey.
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and People Research on India's Consumer Economy (Price) surveyed more than 5000 households across 25 states on their use of digital payments.
Around half of the country's richest 20% of households use digital payments. Although the figure is lower for the poorest 40% of households, even among this group a quarter use the likes of mobile money.
In addition, the NPCI says that there is supressed demand from people who say they want to use digital payments but need education on how to go about this.
If this ‘ready’ demand is enabled through effective training and education, then over half of all Indian households - 151 million households - will become digital payment users, says the NPCI, with the poorest heavily represented.
The report also shows that smartphone ownership is becoming les of a bottleneck for the adoption of digital payments, with 68% of the respondents owning one, including 57% of the poorest households.
Meanwhile, the survey shows high levels of awareness of the NPCI-run Unified Payments Interface (UPI) as well as various apps that run on it. However, notes the corporation, there is potential to boost awareness that any bank or payment app can be used to make UPI payments to any UPI user.
Praveena Rai, COO, NPCI, says: "The report clearly establishes that in India today digital payments have gone well past the early adoption stage and have gained significant traction across the country, including the lower income groups."