A recent government initiative of making our country a ‘Cashless Economy’, has raised thousands of questions like, will this Cashless Economy sustain in India? What will be the consequences of it? What will be the better options when we will go cashless?
To get some insights on the same, Insights Success has interviewed one of the master minds of the field, Mr. Ra Arjunamurthy, Founder & Chairman, YELDI Softcom Private Limited, Chennai. Here are some of the of the insights of the interview:
Q: Will Cashless economy sustain in India?
That to me is quite debatable. From the looks of it customers’ adoption to cashless transaction looks like more a force than a choice, primarily due to lack of cash availability in banks. However, with continued support and protection for this move from our government, India has every possibility to emerge as a cashless economy. For quicker implementation of a cashless economy for a country as dense and diverse as India, Digitization can be a saving grace.
Q: Can we relate cashless transaction to the IT world somehow?
Of course. This cashless move would have least impacted this sector. What with all salary, reimbursements and meal passes credited onto the corporate accounts of the respected employees and with better salary brackets it is so much easier to gain eligibility for credit cards, I assume already 80% of the IT population has gone cashless!
Q: Can you imagine “India a cashless country”?
Why not? Historically, India has a great sense of adoption. The best example is the mobile phone.
Q: Do you think prepaid digital wallets are the best options available today? Why?
If you ask me from a consumer perspective, my answer is YES. Prepaid will provide multi-utility benefit and convenience to end users.
YELDI FOLKS in particular caters specifically to this end user requirement. By removing the need for an existing bank account & smart phone, any Indian with a working mobile number and above the age of 18, can go instantly cashless! With the added advantage of NFC technology, a user/business house can explore this card for a plethora of usages like metro & toll access, parking, condominium, ID cards for institutions and hospitals. I feel, digital wallet in NFC form factor goes beyond a customer’s usage compared to mobile wallets, debit and credit cards. Hence my mantra is “One card does it all!”
Q: What is the future of prepaid digital wallets in India from your point of view?
There is a fantastic opportunity for prepaid digital wallets in India. When a man’s everyday life from entertainment to unwinding with a book has all gone to the digital platform, it is only natural for payments to also go the same route.
Q: Do you think there is any connection in between going cashless and corruption in the country?
Directly No. However,our government has targeted and unravelled the highest black money till date using the demonetization initiative, which inturn has converted to cashless economy, one seems to wonder if maybe there is a connection.
Q: What kind of role YELDI is playing on the cashless ground?
Apart from usually helping consumer on transactions, our serious core objective of the product has been and will continue to be “Connecting consumer and their neighbourhood merchant”.
The Yeldi NFC ecosystem was built with a clear conscience – to empower other business houses to sell, to service and we at Yeldi continuously ensure to make our business partners more powerful than Yeldi. Yeldi aims to help small/medium businesses compete with much bigger and more organized businesses of the world. By empowering merchants to seamlessly adopt the cashless model using Yeldi ecosystem, we are doing our bit in making India a successful cashless economy.
Issence of this interview drew us to the conclusion that, surely India has a potential to become a cashless country and that is too with the help of digitization only!
Digital Remonetization of Indian Economy
