Digital payments across country jumped in March 2023 on YoY basis: RBI data

The RBI-DPI comprises 5 broad parameters that enable the measurement of the deepening and penetration of digital payments in the country over different periods.

Digital payments across the country marked a notable jump on a year-on-year (YoY) basis at the end of March 2023, according to data from the RBI. The RBI-DPI index has increased across all parameters driven by significant growth in payment infrastructure and payment performance across the country over the period, the RBI said.

The apex bank’s digital payment index (RBI-DPI) stood at 395.57 in March 2023 against 377.46 in September 2022 and 349.30 in March 2022, the central bank said in a press release on July 27.

"The RBI-DPI index has increased across all parameters driven by significant growth in payment infrastructure and payment performance across the country over the period," the RBI said in a release.

Last year, the index stood at 349.30 in March 2022 against 304.06 in September 2021 and 270.59 in March 2021.

The Reserve Bank announced the construction of a composite Reserve Bank of India Digital Payments Index (RBI-DPI) in March 2018 as a base to capture the extent of digitisation of payments across the country.

The RBI-DPI comprises five broad parameters that enable the measurement of the deepening and penetration of digital payments in the country over different periods.

These parameters are payment enablers (weight 25 percent), payment infrastructure demand-side factors (10 percent), payment infrastructure supply-side factors (15 percent), payment performance (45 percent) and consumer centricity (5 percent). The index is published on a semi-annual basis from March 2021 onwards with a lag of four months.