IIT-M to give digital transactions a leg-up with tech know-how

At present, there are more than 100 million active UPI users every month across the country, as per the Centre’s statistics. These initiatives are being taken up by MPFI towards bringing 500 million active users onto the UPI payment platforms by 2025. 

On the importance of digital transactions during this pandemic period, Gaurav Raina, Faculty, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Madras, and Chairman, MPFI, said: “Digital and mobile payments, and in particular contactless payments, are important not just from an efficiency point of view, but also to mitigate risk against COVID-19. It provides a great opportunity to help yourself and also the ecosystem.” 

Further, adding on how IIT Madras will bring its expertise in coordination with other stakeholders, Raina, said: “This is the perfect time to build research collaborations to work towards solutions which will be cutting edge and can help India lead the way globally in the delivery of mobile-based financial services.” 

The role of IIT Madras will also be to provide thought leadership in driving digital payments in India to the next level. Among the key technical areas in which IIT Madras researchers will be working will be machine learning and artificial intelligence, as applied to the digital payments space.