NOTE BAN: A MONTH AFTER. The big gainers: Fintech

If there is one area which has seen a positive impact of demonetisation, it is the digital payments sector with several players in this space witnessing over 100 per cent growth in transactions in the last month.

And where there is opportunity there is innovation too as many of these companies have come up with newer and more efficient ways to help consumers move to a cashless economy.

While aggressive advertisement and promotional campaigns run by the bigger players such as Paytm, FreeCharge, Oxigen and Mobikwik helped them garner more users, many of these players have come out with new initiatives and interesting innovations. For example, Paytm and Oxigen launched an app-based PoS (Point of Sale) for smaller merchants that helped shop owners receive credit card payments without a card swiping machine.

To cater to the 650 million non-smartphone user base, digital wallet providers have come up with some innovative approaches. The Ola app is configured to work in areas with low network connectivity, is 2G optimised and also offers offline booking feature where customers can book rides via SMS options.

Freecharge has enabled using QR codes to authenticate payments and is learnt to be working on a WhatsApp-enabled payment model. MobiKwik recently launched MobiKwik Lite, a stripped down mobile wallet through which payments can be made through basic smartphones and data connections.

According to Upasna Taku, co-founder, Mobikwik, the lite app has registered 20 lakh downloads within the first two days of launch.

Ride hailing app Jugnoo is all set to launch an IVR system where users who don’t have internet connectivity can do transactions through a toll free number, according to Ronak Goyal, V-P, Engineering, Jugnoo.

Another digital wallet provider ToneTag recently launched a sound-based system to authenticate payments. Using a sound-based system that works on Near Field Communication tech, the ToneTag app allows your phone to pick up an inaudible sound signal containing a unique broadcast code to authenticate a transaction.