Cash to Cashless Economy: An Indian Travelogue

Cashless Economy is a system where no physical cash is in circulation. Payments are generally made through credit and debit cards, bank electronic fund transfers or virtual wallets or other means of digital facilities. India’s economy is now going through such a paradigm shift which is supported by global economic and political environment; moreover this can be defined as economies jump towards digitalization and automation. In a country like India, it will be difficult to achieve this within few years since 95% of all transactions are involved in cash as per a report by RBI. To be precise, India’s place as an economic superpower is hugely relied on its huge demographic divide. One such example is India’s growing youth population. The expanding working age population i.e. people in the age group of 15-64 is expected to see an addition of 10 million in the next decade alone, which boosts up India’s economic opportunity. India’s move towards cashless economy cannot be defined in one step. It can be defined only as a long running process which can be achieved by public involvement, boosting up basic infrastructure facilities, internet availability and other digital platforms. When all these factors come together with massive force, India’s step towards cashless economy can be achievable. This paper mainly focuses on India’s approach towards a cashless economy, its various challenges and implementation stages, government initiatives etc.