Impact of Digitalization on Indian Rural Banking Customer: With Reference to Payment Systems

Abstract

Moving on from the physical clearance of the cheques to the CTS technology, from brick and mortar model of the banks to the internet banking and mobile banking, launch of BHIM and UPI application, digitalization has become a buzz word in today’s era. Information Technology today has a crucial role to play in an efficient banking system, and Indian banks have placed a strong infrastructure to leverage its benefits by moving on to contextual banking and open Application Programming Interface. Though riddled with lot of risk, banking services have steadily moved forward with digitalization to offer customer services at their fingertips and laptop screens. With Indian Banking Industry competing the world class technology, the rural banking customers still face challenges in embracing digital payments. The article attempts to present the opportunities and challenges recently emerging in the rural banking sector with special emphasis on digitalization and to analyze the importance of digital literacy in today’s banking scenario. This study provides the insights of the digital technology and ways adopted by banks in rural India and to understand the perception and behavior of rural customers toward these services.