Use RuPay Cards To Make Offline Payments, Even Without Internet! (How Will It Work?)

By Rohit Kulkarni Last updated Dec 17, 2020

The National Payments Corporation of India(NPCI) has enabled an offline payments feature on RuPay Contactless cards. In a press note on December 16, the retail payments network says that the feature is a part of the transit payments system and has been enabled for retail payments on a pilot basis.

Before we delve into this feature, let’s have a look at NPCI in brief.

NPCI In Brief:-

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) was incorporated in 2008 as an umbrella organization for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India. It has created a robust payment and settlement infrastructure in the country and is focused on innovating the retail payment systems through use of technology and is relentlessly working to transform India into a digital economy. Some of their products

It has also launched UPI 2.0 to offer a more secure and comprehensive services to consumers and merchants.

We all have seen and experienced the recent developments in the payments space. All you need is the card, details and a stable internet connection. But the ability to pay was void in the absence of connection or when the connection was weak. But the new feature will provide reloadable wallets within the RuPay card so that money can be stored in wallets and even when connection is absent or weak, such transactions can be made.

The RuPay NCMC (National Common Mobility Card) offline wallet can be used to make following payments in transit in also:-

Metros
Bus tickets
Cab fares

Thereby reducing the wait time, traffic congestion and transit time by enabling automatic quick cashless payments.

According to Nalin Bansal, Head of RuPay & NFS, NPCI. “With the advent of the RuPay contactless (offline) feature, the acceptance infrastructure for RuPay will increase exponentially and will result in the rapid on-boarding for both merchants and consumers in various geographies across the nation. With the recent announcement to increase the transaction limit on contactless payments, customers are set to witness an all new level of security, convenience and safety”.

Towards The Broader Effort Of RBI:-

This development serves towards the bigger goal of RBI, to bring all areas such as low network areas, basement shops and other similar places under the canopy of digital payments by going an extra mile this time, i.e. by enabling the offline digital payment capabilities.

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