Indian Institute of Technology Madras researchers will collaborate with members of the Mobile Payment Forum of India (MPFI) to develop voice-based solutions, especially in multiple vernacular languages, for digital money transactions. This will provide a platform not only for the increased adoption of digital payments in India but for research opportunities as well, says a release from IIT Madras.

At present, there are more than 100 million active UPI users every month in India, as per the Government of India’s statistics. These initiatives are being taken up by MPFI towards bringing 500 million active users on to the UPI payment platforms by 2025.

In the last Budget, the Centre had allocated Rs 1,500 Crore to help drive the adoption of digital payments in the country. The MPFI is working to identify innovation across three levels; Human behaviour and adoption, Technology (design and safeguards), and policy (a data-centric view) to propel India over the next decade.

Gaurav Raina, Faculty, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Madras, is the Chairman of MPFI, a joint initiative of the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology, Hyderabad and Rural Technology Business Incubator, IIT Madras. Taken up in 2006, the MPFI’s mission is to enable mobile payments and mobile financial services by everyone.

IIT Madras will 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.

As more people use digital payments, it will create a useful digital data history and footprint. Then using machine learning and artificial intelligence, one can aim to provide customised financial solutions and other value-added services, which will make it more attractive for more people to adopt digital modes of payments, the release said.

Raina is conducting discussions with startups, researchers and companies to set up working groups to attract top researchers to this field.

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) apps are already available in multiple languages. The UPI is an instant real-time payment system developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to facilitate inter-bank transactions in the country, the release said.

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