With demonetisation underway, the next step is to learn to transact without cash. To ease this process, several private companies and banks have launched their apps. And every passing day we see emergence of new apps.
While in theory the apps are supposed to make life simple for the lay man, in reality there are several practical issues which need to be sorted before the cashless concept actually works.
“If you download SBI Buddy you can transact only with those people who are having SBI Buddy. We all have yet to have an interface platform for all the apps,” said a senior official from the State Bank of India.
This new phenomenon which is barely three weeks old, perhaps will take several months to settle down as there are issues which are a cause of concern to the common man.
First, there are several options and none of them are compatible with each other. Second, there are multiple apps of the same bank already available and this requires a recheck as they are developed by a third party which can be a potential malware app. Third, not all apps are on iOS and majority of them are in Android. Fourth, people are required to update their apps regularly. Fifth, the buyers and sellers need to be trained by experts to carry out their business. All these issues need to be addressed.
CEO of Androcid, Prajyot Mainkar believes that, “from the sellers point of view it is a challenging role because sellers need to understand the concept first. For that they need to be trained as it involves transacting money. It is however an advantage that they do not have to handle daily cash. From the buyer’s part, it is essential that the government should ensure that surcharges on card and apps are kept really low and it does not pinch them while using it.”
On the brighter side, demonitisation has proved to be a complete positive for tech start-ups. A sizable amount of India is supposed to come online for financial transactions and that opens up a big market for e-commerce.
“Many of our own customers have been recently funded to tap this opportunity. Users are resorting to various modes of payments. Paytm has been most preferred as a mobile wallet followed by Mobiwik and Freecharge. Reliance Jio Money wallet has been going strong as well. UPI has also been introduced by RBI to allow USSD transactions on all types of mobile phones along with its own mobile wallet. India is definitely gearing up for cashless economy,” said the CEO of Genorainfotec.com Milind Prabhu.
Milind Prabhu added that people will have a tough time accepting this change. It’s also the responsibility of the learned to educate at least one fellow Indian on using cashless modes of payment.
“It’s in our nature to face difficulties while adapting to something new. But it’s just a step to transact once and we realise how convenient it is. If we all stand up to support this move, in few years we would proudly look back and feel happy to be a part of this spectacular revolution that will work to make India a supreme cashless economy. Not many times in our lifetime, such opportunities would turn up. We have it now. We should grab it and make it a time to remember when we look back after a few years,” said Mr Prabhu.
CEO and co-founder of Umang Technologies Mangirish Salelkar says that, “It has been a nightmare to many of the businessman, politicians and bureaucrats, since the move is intended both to reduce untaxed ‘black’ money and rampant corruption in the country and to bring more accountability in cash-based informal industries. The IT companies like Umang, which is 100% EOU, registered under Sofftware Technology Parks of India (STPI), and are purely into software services exports, have clear transactions which go through RBI monitoring. However, there will definitely be a few IT driven or enabled businesses which have been affected, for example Amazon or Flipkart, who have around 80 per cent of cash transactions. Reduction in Cash on Delivery – Short Term Pain But Long Term Gain. They say it will reduce black money in India, but they should not forget Indians are best at ‘Jugaad’.”
