Digital payments up 30.2% in FY21: RBI data

Digital payments have recorded a growth of 30.19 per cent during the year ended March 2021, reflecting adoption and deepening of cashless transactions in the country, RBI data showed. As per the newly constituted Digital Payments Index (RBI-DPI), the index rose to 270.59 at the end of March 2021, up from 207.84 a year ago.
"The RBI-DPI index has demonstrated significant growth in the index representing the rapid adoption and deepening of digital payments across the country in recent years," the RBI said.

The Reserve Bank had earlier announced construction of a composite Reserve Bank of India - Digital Payments Index (RBI-DPI) with March 2018 as base to capture the extent of digitisation of payments across the country.

The RBI-DPI comprises five broad parameters that enable measurement of deepening and penetration of digital payments in the country over different time periods.

These parameters are -- Payment Enablers (weight 25 per cent); Payment Infrastructure - Demand-side factors (10 per cent); Payment Infrastructure - Supply-side factors (15 per cent); Payment Performance (45 per cent); and Consumer Centricity (5 per cent).

In January, the RBI had said the index will be published on a semi-annual basis from March 2021 onwards with a lag of four months.