National Payments Corporation of India has recently announced a new service - Interbank Mobile Payment Service (http://www.npci.org.in/aboutimps.aspx) that would enable people to transfer money to others (holding an account even in a different bank) from their mobile phones. The best part is that this service does not require connectivity to GPRS or 3G or Wi-Fi! It is done using SMS and is claimed to be very secure. So, even with a low end phone (no additional connectivity hassles), people can now make payments from their mobile phones.
So, where do you see this being used? You can now take a rick /taxi and don’t have to worry about carrying change. Just ask the mobile number of the driver and his MPIN and pay the person in 10 seconds right from your mobile. You can do the same to your vegetable vendor or to a friend in urgent need of cash. The possibilities are endless. Hope we don’t get to see beggars with a board hanging around their neck (with their Mobile number and MPIN) and asking us to part with some cash (not the kind of technological advancement we all to want to see!). The amount one can transfer is restricted to 1,00,000 Rs and only 7 banks are participating at this point. Do check the NPCI website for full details of how one can enroll and use the service.
I really hope this mode of payment (mobile payments in general) becomes mainstream and ubiquitous. There are so many positives to this.
