Electronic wallets are finding it difficult to survive

A drastic reduction in use of cash in an economy has many potential benefits, yet India is finding it difficult to transform its economy into a cashless one. In India changing consumer behavior to such a degree is difficult as people are not so enlightened and senior citizens are aversive of using online banking due to lack of financial literacy and financial inclusions. Even the basic infrastructure like internet connectivity, laptops, mobiles phones are the items of privilege of a few. Most of the local stores in India, only accept cash to avoid paying the tax fee on the bill amount, hence even merchants don’t like asking for cards as long as you can pay cash.

Since e-money is just a bunch of bits, a piece of e-money is very easy to duplicate and e-money systems sometimes fail to prevent or detect double spending. Weak cyber security infrastructure leaves people vulnerable to phishing, theft, hacking, etc. Standalone players who offer a mere wallet are really struggling to grow and generate revenue.

A balanced gradual change is needed to completely transform India into a cashless economy in days to come. I wish good luck to the current electronic wallets like paytm,   payUmoney, mobikwik etc., to survive through this phase and help Indian economy to transform.