{"id":14214,"date":"2021-03-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/current_affairs\/uncategorized\/04-03-2021\/merchant-digitization-summit-2021\/"},"modified":"2021-03-04T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-04T00:00:00","slug":"merchant-digitization-summit-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/04-03-2021\/merchant-digitization-summit-2021","title":{"rendered":"Merchant Digitization Summit 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In News: <\/strong>FICCI and UN-based <strong>Better Than Cash Alliance<\/strong> hosted <strong>Merchant Digitization Summit 2021.<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Theme<\/strong>-Towards <strong>Atma Nirbhar (Self Reliance) Bharat<\/strong> with a <strong>special focus on Himalayan Regions, North East Regions and Aspirational Districts of India.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Key Highlights<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0The Summit brought together leaders from the <strong>public and private sectors <\/strong>to<strong> accelerate responsible digitization<\/strong> of <strong>merchants in India&#8217;s North-Eastern and Himalayan region<\/strong>s and <strong>Aspirational districts.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>It focused on <strong>empowering women merchants<\/strong> <strong>who play critical roles<\/strong> in their <strong>communities.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>This Summit is part of the series of <strong>Learning Exchange amongst all States and Union <\/strong>Territories under which <strong>DEA had also co-organized<\/strong> the webinar titled \u201c<strong>Unlocking the value of Fintech in promoting Digital Payments\u2019.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>There was the consensus during the event that an <strong>industry-level approach <\/strong>was required to address the unique and fundamental challenges including <strong>gender targeting in national, regional and state-level merchant initiatives.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The participants agreed that the <strong>National Language Translation Mission<\/strong> can be used to d<strong>isseminate digital payments information, privacy clauses<\/strong> and <strong>consent in local languages for trust and empowerment. <\/strong><\/li>\n<li>They also identified opportunities to <strong>address the challenges of connectivity<\/strong>, access to <strong>smartphones, and digital literacy for merchants at the last mile. <\/strong><\/li>\n<li>From an average of 2-3 billion digital transactions monthly, India has set an ambitious target for 1 billion digital transactions per day.\n<ul>\n<li>Person to merchant (P2M) digital payment transactions will scale to 10-12 billion transactions every month to contribute to India\u2019s digital economy.\u00a0 <strong>\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0<strong>Suggestions &#8211;<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Along with the i<strong>ncreased focus on \u2018Make in India<\/strong>\u2019 through <strong>Atma Nirbhar Bharat <\/strong>Scheme,<strong> responsible digitization<\/strong> must more strongly include <strong>rural networks <\/strong>such as <strong>Self Help Groups and community<\/strong> enablers.\n<ul>\n<li>This will <strong>create local digital ecosystems <\/strong>to <strong>help millions of merchants join the formal economy, access credit, and grow their business.\u201d <\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table border=\"1\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:735px\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"background-color:#fff2cc; width:468.0pt\">\n<p><strong>Better Than Cash Alliance<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It is a<strong> partnership of governments, companies,<\/strong> and<strong> international organizations <\/strong>that <strong>accelerates the transition from cash<\/strong> to <strong>responsible digital payments<\/strong> to help achieve <strong>Sustainable Development Goals<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>It is based at the<strong> United Nations.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>It has <strong>75 members<\/strong> which are committed to <strong>digitizing payments<\/strong> in order to <strong>boost efficiency, transparency, women\u2019s economic participation<\/strong> and<strong> financial inclusion, helping build economies that are digital and inclusive.<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Members do not want to <strong>abolish physical cash \u2013 it is legal tende<\/strong>r \u2013 but rather want to <strong>provide responsible digital payment options<\/strong> that are <strong>\u201cbetter than cash\u201d.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>India became a member of the <strong>Better Than Cash Alliance in 2015 <\/strong>to <strong>digitize payments <\/strong>to <strong>achieve financial inclusion<\/strong> and to share success stories from<strong> Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana<\/strong>, the <strong>world&#8217;s largest financial inclusion program. <\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The alliance is working with <strong>several state governments towards the goal <\/strong>of <strong>building knowledge and programs<\/strong> where people, <strong>governments, and businesses<\/strong> can make and <strong>receive digital payments.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI)<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It was established in 1927<\/li>\n<li>It is the <strong>largest and oldest apex business organisation<\/strong> in India.<\/li>\n<li>Its history is<strong> closely interwoven with India&#8217;s struggle for independence<\/strong>, its <strong>industrialization, and its emergence<\/strong> as one of the <strong>most rapidly growing global economies.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>It is a <strong>non-government, not-for-profit organisation<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>It serves its members from the <strong>Indian private and public corporate sectors<\/strong> and <strong>multinational companies, drawing its strength from diverse regional chambers<\/strong> of <strong>commerce and industry across states, r<\/strong>eaching out to over 2,50,000 companies.<\/li>\n<li>FICCI provides a platform for <strong>networking and consensus building<\/strong> within and across <strong>sectors and is the first port of call for Indian industry, policymakers and the international business community.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In News: FICCI and UN-based Better Than Cash Alliance hosted Merchant Digitization Summit 2021. Theme-Towards Atma Nirbhar (Self Reliance) Bharat with a special focus on Himalayan Regions, North East Regions and Aspirational Districts of India. Key Highlights \u00a0The Summit brought together leaders from the public and private sectors to accelerate responsible digitization of merchants in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2023\/07\/12518096268277current-affairs.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}