While India’s economy is still largely dominated by cash, the tide is beginning to turn toward modern payments. Recent PYMNTS research found that card use grew 20 percent in the country over the past three years, and new payment methods, like digital and mobile transactions, are quickly gaining steam, with several new payment interfaces being rolled out over the past month.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month announced the launch of a mobile payments app offered by the nation’s Unified Payment Interface. Called BHIM, or Bharat Interface for Money, the app will be used by all banks and financial institutions in the country, and Modi asked consumers to embrace the use of new payment methods as a “habit” and predicted that the app would someday be the platform for “all business transactions.”
Meanwhile, the Indian government also named the village of Dwarapudi, known for embracing new technology, such as solar power, the country’s first “Digital Transactions Enabled Model Village” last month.
Bringing blockchain to new heights
Can a digital currency provide the skeleton digital payments platform? For the latest Developer Tracker cover story, PYMNTS caught up with Brian Behlendorf, executive director of Hyperledger, to talk about how developers are working together to find new use cases for blockchain, the software rails that power bitcoin.
Behlendorf noted that, while blockchain’s future might be somewhat murky, collaboration between companies will likely play a large role in tapping its potential.
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About The Tracker
The PYMNTS.com Developer Tracker™, powered by Vantiv, provides the payments ecosystem with a view into how software developers are using new technologies to create innovative business opportunities and enable merchants to optimize the ways in which they engage with shoppers today. The developer community within the tracker is separated into three categories: Shopping and Payments, Operations and Marketing.
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