RBI spends Rs 4K cr to print notes: NPCI

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) Managing Director and CEO A P Hota on Friday urged the general public to optimise the usage of digitisation for any mode of payment as RBI spends Rs 4,000 crore solely on printing notes.

Addressing a panel discussion on ‘Financial Inclusion as a Key Driver for Inclusive Growth’ organised by CII, Hota said, “Once digitisation happens, velocity of money will increase.

The bills and invoices turned out by different financial packages have to be standardised.”
He added, “The vision of PM Narendra Modi is to upgrade the Indian economy from $2 trillion to $20 trillion, which can be achieved provided, all of us get used to digital payment.”
On payment banks, Hota said, “Payment banks will give big nudge to public sector banks to change in a big (digital) way from the paper mode.”?

With the success of Jan Dhan Yojana, 247 million households in the country have access to payment instruments and 147 million got access to accident insurance through RuPay card. He urged leveraging of Aadhaar cards for the financial system to plug leakages.

Tata Housing Development Company Head (R&D) Arun Kashikar said that 90 per cent of housing projects are delayed owing to shortage of labour. Real estate is a labour oriented industry with 82 per cent (unskilled labour), 12 per cent (skilled labour), 2.5 per cent (engineers), 1.5 per cent (technicians), and one per cent (clerks). In India, there is a housing shortage of 18.72 million units.

LabourNet Services India CEO Gayathri Vasudevan said, “Large number of labourers are dealing with cash payment and how do we ensure that they deal with the formal banking system? The changing patterns of behaviour will come if there is an economic motive.”