From A Cash-Intensive Economy To Digitization-India Road to Online Payments; Digital Payments are gradually paving their way into the Indian psyche following demonetization. The growth of India’s financial sector has largely been led by banks. Banks are still the kingpins that support the digital payment infrastructure. Third-party payment gateways are entering the market to expand the plethora of digital payments and platforms available to the Indian consumers, backed by their strength in technology and customer-centric innovations. The shift to digital payments has become so evident in some of the data that reflects a significant increase in the acceptance locations within the country from 1.2 million in December 2015 to over 5 million by the end of 2018, almost three times growth in less than three years.

The best of both worlds

The approach could be termed as ‘the best of both worlds’ approach, which has promoted a significant growth in the number of digital payments, and it shall continue. The Indian payments ecosystem has made substantial progress on the insurance side. A wide range of services has been offered through bank accounts, branches, business correspondence, cards, and the most popular medium these days, smartphones. Robust and resilient payments infrastructure includes RTGS, NEFT, BHIM, IMPS, UPI, ATMs and Mobile Wallets.

It is very interesting to see the change in the spending patterns of Indians in the past two years. Online (Internet-based) shopping transactions now account for 35 prevent of all Mastercard card spends. This serves as a clear indication that Indians are getting comfortable using their debit, credit, and prepaid Mastercard cards for online shopping and online payments as compared to face-to-face POS transactions at a merchant site. The change in the behavior is thanks to e-commerce giants like Flipkart and Amazon, mobility operators like Ola and Uber, food delivery partners like Zomato, Swiggy, and UberEats, who are incentivizing digital payments are driving customers away from Cash on Delivery.

The most commonly used digital payments platform in India PayTM has raised USD 1 billion in a recent round of funding. The fresh investments will be leveraged for growing the payments and the financial services business in the country. PayTM also plans to invest over USD 100 million over the next three years to bring financial inclusion to more under-served users across India.

In the initial stages of its growth, PayTM mastered low-cost digital payment accessibility in India through its QR-code technology in local shops and small scale retailers. The platform, which serves retailers and merchants in more than 2,000 towns and cities spanning across 650 districts, aims to bring low-cost mobile-enabled financial services in rural India. The company aims to support and drive millions of odd rural Indians towards self-sustainability and job creation.

PayTM has been in talks ever since the start of this year to raise funds amid facing losses, growing competition in the digital payment sector, and not a clear vision of revenue growth and the path to increase its customer base. But now, PayTM is firmly locked in a market share war in digital payments with Google Pay and PhonePe. The three platforms are competing for neck-to-neck and are coming up with the most innovative features they can offer.

Digital Wallets are taking over

Digital Wallets are another efficient tool for easy online payments. To expand their reach, the digital wallets started encouraging customers to use them for offline points of sale (POS) transactions, too, like at grocery stores, supermarkets, shopping malls, restaurants, movie theatres, and gas/petrol stations. POS transactions are expected to become a major contributor to the digital payment platforms in the coming years. Clearly, digital wallets are playing a unique role in driving the growth of the digital payment sector in the country.

Cashless transactions enable consumers to make more purchases in a shorter time. Many people end up purchasing items spontaneously, thus contributing to economic growth. A rise in the demand for goods will lead to more production and supply, which will promote the retail sector, adding up to employment and higher revenue. More digital transactions provide more data to the government for research and better framing of policies. This could be a huge game-changer for India as the financial growth can be mapped accordingly.

Transparency and Convenience

Digital payments ensure accountability in all transactions. Since all the transactions are recorded digitally, there is always a way to go back and review the transaction history and keep track of the payments. While using cash payments, it might be difficult to hold anyone accountable for any additional expenditure. For instance, when the government made digital smart cards mandatory in cases of pension payments, replacing the system of manual payouts in villages and rural areas, a 47 percent reduction in bribery was reported. In cases of fraudulence also, it is easier to detect the fraud faster because everything is recorded digitally. Online transactions are also fast and convenient for those who feel unsafe while carrying money around.

The digital online payments industry will continue to create new user experiences which serve the need of the hour, are innovative and fresh. For instance, some digital payment platforms offer features like “payment reminders” or “pay later,” where users can set payment reminders for the recurring monthly bills. Similar to this feature, the “auto-payment” option has also added a dash of convenience for daily commuters who use cabs and buses. The idea is to create a value-added and swift transaction experience for the user.

Moving Forward to Cash-less India

While India still needs to adopt cashless transactions completely to embark on the journey of becoming a well-balanced economy in the next few years, there are still a few obstacles that need to be tackled. While IoTs and artificial intelligence are coming up with new technological tools every day, it is also important to have a sustainable and lucrative business model that supports the new-age digital environment with a strong cyber-security system. While the challenges are plenty, banks, third parties, and the government are creating a strong team to race towards a safer and brighter, cash-less future.

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If you are thinking of providing the utmost level of security to your family members and yourself, nothing can beat the contribution of insurance policies. Every living person on earth has different needs and requirements and in order to fulfill each demand, it is always safe to have a financial backup from Life Insurance Corporation of India. Moreover, for continuing to receive the service throughout your life, you need to need to know all about LIC premium payments.

Established in 1956, LIC has the most popular and largest insurance company in India as the estimated value of the organization is approximately US$250 billion. Due to the effective and efficient policies, the organization is able to dominate the Indian market on a large scale. Spreading all across the country, the company has acquired over 2000 branches that have around 14 lakh insurance agents helping every interested person regarding LIC premium payments online.

Know about LIC and its Services

The Life Insurance Corporation of India has gained its fame due to the unbelievable services and easy LIC online premium payment. After getting the policy, you can inquire about the policy status and its unpaid premium, policy schedule and its due date, bonus status and loan status. Easing people’s lives each passing day, the policyholders can make payments through UPI, BHIM, Credit Card, Debit Card and Net banking.

Register Yourself First for LIC Premium Payment

If you are not a registered LIC member, you have to register yourself first by following few steps. You need to get the registration form from LIC premium payment at first and then create an account following certain guidelines.

• For making LIC premium payment in future, you have to choose a proper username that will have alpha and numeric with special characters including and score.
• Create a strong password for easy LIC premium payment options with 8-30 characters.
• Chosen pin code must not exceed the limit of six digits. For averting fraudulent cases regarding password hacks, you must not share your password with anyone. In this way, you can have a smooth experience on LIC premium payment portal.
• By entering a valid email ID, you can enable the services regarding LIC premium payment offers.

If you want to proceed with LIC premium payment, you have to know the status of the LIC policy first. After going through the guidelines and policy related information and registering yourself for LIC premium payment online payment, you have to log in to the online portal.

How to check LIC Policy Status?

After being done with the registration and login stages, you will have to undertake the easy process of knowing LIC premium payment details including the status.

• At first, you are required to visit the official web portal LIC premium payment and entering username and password.
• Then choose the option that indicates policy status and fill out certain details.
• The details include LIC policy number, your date of birth, amount of the LIC premium payment and registered email ID.
• After providing details, you will be redirected to a new page where you will be shown all the policies that you have enrolled.
• On the page showing enrolled policies, you will see the dates of LIC premium payment and the amount of vested bonus.
• Only by clicking on the policy number then, you are shown LIC premium payment status.

Know Status of the Policy without Having Registration

 For future use of LIC premium payment, knowing the status is essentially required and if you are not a registered user, you might face certain constraints. You can opt for a phone call or SMS service for enjoying the best of the policies continuously. Moreover, everyone is not gifted with an internet connection, for them, the phone call or SMS service can be a great option for staying updated with the due dates of LIC premium payments.

• If you have to go for LIC premium payment, you need to send message writing ASKLIC STAT for inquiring about the IPP policy status.
• In order to know about annuity amount, you will be advised to send a text message mentioning the code ASKLIC AMOUNT.
• If you are keen to know whether you are gifted with bonus, you need to send a text writing ASKLIC BONUS and pay the LIC premium payment accordingly.
• For LIC premium payment without registration, the policyholders can give a call to 12151. If you have any query regarding LIC premium payment, the phone call service can help you out on a large scale as it offers 24×7 customer support.

Using advent technology, for LIC, the sky is now the limit as it is the only one organization that has been able to capture the market growth guiding every policyholder from LIC premium statement to LIC premium payments online. The convenient service lives to make people more secure and efficient through its service.

Check top Life and General insurance companies in Newskart.

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