“We started this journey of promoting benefits of digital payments approximately 2 years ago in association with global payments leader Mastercard. It is our fortune that the ministry of electronics & IT has decided to encourage us more to take this initiative ahead and now aim at onboarding merchants to digital payments platforms,” said Praveen Khandelwal, secretary general, CAIT, after the press conference that was conducted to announce the MoU.

“We remain committed to Honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of a digital inclusive India and Arun Jaitley's vision of securing financial inclusiveness for India's largest self-organised base of retailers in every part of the country,” added Khandelwal.

CAIT also released its Less Cash Roadmap this year in a bid to promote the digital payments among the traders. The 60-day campaign will be launched from January 1, 2017. During the campaign, CAIT will hold conferences on digital payment in various states which will be attended by leaders of trade associations from various states. Camps will also be organised in markets across the country for acceptance of digital payments.

In association with local trade associations, CAIT will conduct outdoor publicity campaign to promote digital payments. Traders will be made aware of the benefits of digital payment through short videos and WhatsApp clippings. Less Cash march, street plays, seminars, workshops and training camps will also be held in markets across India as part of the awareness programme.

The decision to sign the MoU comes after CAIT held numerous consultations with various governmental agencies. Post November 8, a large number of their recommendations have already been accepted and CAIT will now aim at driving state level intense adoption. (KD)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India