RBI to launch UPI platform systems on feature phones to promote digitisation

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday announced that it has decided to develop UPI platform systems for pocket-friendly feature phones with an aim to boost the penetration of digital payments. Feature phones are basic phones, primarily utilised for voice calling and text messaging purposes. Apart from calling and text messages, some devices also support basic multimedia and internet options. With 118 crore users, India is one of the largest mobile phone users base and a large part of the users operate feature phones. So, enabling UPI payment possible on the most widely used device in the country will take India a step closer to advancing digitisation under the Digital India campaign.

Key Points:

1. "In the first cohort of 'RBI Regulatory Sandbox', some innovators had successfully demonstrated their solutions for feature phone payments, under the theme of 'Retail Payments', the central bank said.

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2. The Central bank also said that if the solutions of the innovators are worked on then UPI-based digital payment solutions can be facilitated on feature phones. These will also promote wider digitisation, it added.

3. The details about the UPI platform for feature phones are yet to be disclosed. Furthermore, the central bank has also proposed to come up with a simpler process through an "On-device" wallet in the UPI apps for small-ticket transactions.

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