Minister of State Electronics & Information Technology launches the ‘Digital Payment Suraksha’ Campaign

Given the recent momentum on digital payments and the government’s drive for a ‘Less Cash Economy’, DSCI in association with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and Google India announced the launch of their ‘Digital Payment Suraksha’ awareness campaign to address the need to educate end users and merchants on security and safety best practices while making digital transactions.
The campaign was launched by Shri Alphons Kannathanam, Minister of State Electronics & Information Technology, Ministry of Tourism (Independent Charge) in presence of Shri Ajay Sawhney, Secretary, MeitY.
‘Digital Payment Suraksha’ Campaign has a two-pronged approach which mutually complement each other. (1) ‘Digital Payment Security Awareness Campaign’ will engage communities including individuals (users), traders, and micro, small & medium businesses, by making them aware of best practices and dos and don’ts on six payment channels including Debit and Credit Card, Online and Mobile Banking, Mobile Wallets, Unified Payment Interface (UPI) & BHIM, Aadhaar Enabled Payment Systems (AEPS) & USSD Payments. (2) ‘Digital Payment Security Alliance’ will facilitate the ecosystem to deliberate on a common agenda focusing on policy, deriving best practices from global success stories and stakeholder collaboration.
Shri Ajay Kumar Sawhney, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said, “It is our endeavor to see that BHIM QR or BHARAT QR is available at every payment touch point to facilitate digital payments.”
Ms. Rama Vedashree, CEO, DSCI “Digital payments accelerate financial inclusion which is key to India’s socioeconomic transformation. The success of digital payments depends not only on secure platforms, but also on the security awareness of users. DSCI’s Digital Payments Suraksha campaign crafted in partnership with MeitY and Google is aimed at educating users and merchants on security practices and will be rolled out nationwide in association with several partners.
Shri Chetan Krishnaswamy, Director, Public Policy, Google India said, “We are honored to partner with the Ministry of Electronics & IT and DSCI to launch the ‘Digital Payment Suraksha’ awareness campaign. We are very excited by the potential of the digital ecosystem, however, for the digital payment ecosystem to scale, security concerns will have to be effectively addressed. All of us have a responsibility in making the user experience secure and we believe that the ‘Digital Payment Suraksha’ awareness campaign will be an important movement in enhancing user trust in the digital payment space.”
The minister unveiled a film that presented customers’ and users’ apprehensions while making digital payments through different channels and merchants, educating them with best practices along with brochures that contains dos and don’ts for users and merchants.
Currently developed in five languages – Hindi, English, Gujarati, Tamil & Telugu – DSCI plans to spread awareness and promote the campaign through the physical and online channels of campaign partners from government and industry. Till now DSCI has onboarded the Government of Telangana, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), Airtel Payments Bank, Axis Bank, MasterCard, PayTM, PayPal and Visa as campaign awareness partners.