Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology and Google launch the 'Digital Payment Abhiyan'

As India paces itself to become one of the largest and fastest growing markets for digital consumers, DSCI, in collaboration with Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and Google India, and with the support from a host of digital payments ecosystem partners has launched a nationwide awareness campaign titled ‘Digital Payment Abhiyan’. The campaign will educate end users on the benefits of making digital payments and urge them to adopt security and safety best practices.

To drive the campaign objectives and amplify outreach to users across all states, DSCI has on boarded various digital payments ecosystem partners. The partners include several leading organizations with representation from banking, card networks as well as FinTech. Airtel Payments Bank Limited, Axis Bank, BharatPe, CID Karnataka, Google Pay, Government of Telangana, HDFC Bank, MasterCard, NABARD, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), Paypal, Paytm Payments Bank Limited, PayU, State Bank of India (SBI) and VISA have committed their partnership towards the initiative.

‘Digital Payment Abhiyan’, a pan-India campaign crafted in seven languages - Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Bengali and Marathi - is aimed to educate users on the benefits of digital payments and educating  users to stay safe from possible security risks and frauds. The campaign will engage with users and make them aware of  dos and don’ts for different payment channels including UPI, wallets, cards as well as netbanking and mobile banking. Guided by the philosophy ‘prevention is better than cure’ the campaign will sensitise users about common security mistakes to increase awareness and confidence of users about digital payments.

Launching the campaign at Google for India Event, Honorable Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister for Law & Justice, Communications and Electronics & Information Technology said, “Digital Payments are shaping the financial ecosystem by providing citizens with new mediums to pay electronically and move towards a cashless society. I urge all ecosystem partners to work together towards providing better digital payment solutions for citizens which are safe, secure and respect user’s privacy. Digital Payment Abhiyan is an important initiative in this direction which will spread awareness on security and safety aspects of Digital Payments in Tier-II and Tier III towns in Vernacular Languages”.

Caesar Sengupta, VP, Next Billion Users and Payments commented, “Digital Payment Abhiyan is an important initiative to increase public awareness of digital payments and online financial safety. And it shows how an entire ecosystem - government, non-profit organisations, and businesses - can work together in the interest of consumers. We are excited to be part of this ecosystem, supporting India as it moves into a digital future.”

Rama Vedashree, CEO, DSCI said, “DSCI’s mission is to enhance trust and confidence of users as they adopt a Digital Lifestyle. Digital Payments is now core to everything Indians do online, from recharging mobiles, shopping groceries, ordering a meal, to booking movie or rail tickets to subscribing to online learning courses. Continued momentum of Digital Payments hinges on security awareness of users and staying safe from fraudsters. DSCI takes pride in the ‘Digital Payment Abhiyan’ a campaign crafted in partnership with MeitY and Google and for the support received from a host of Institutions and Industry members.”