Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT-Madras) are working on voice-based solutions in regional languages to boost digital money transactions.
The researchers are collaborating with the Mobile Payment Forum of India (MPFI) to develop such solutions in several regional languages.
The forum aims to identify innovation in human behaviour and adoption; technology with regard to design and safeguard; and policy that would provide a data-centric view.
Gaurav Raina, faculty in the Department of Electrical Engineering, said digital and mobile payments were efficient and mitigate the risk against COVID-19 infection. The researchers will offer their expertise in machine learning and artificial intelligence as applied to digital payment space by making back-end technology more robust and secure and creating a useful digital data history and footprint.
Customised solutions
Machine learning and AI will help provide customised financial solutions and value-added services, Mr. Raina said.
The forum has recommended that the government-allocated funds be used to educate users on mobile payment; develop multilingual ecosystem for payments in the country. A voice-based solution would be a step towards hands-free transaction.. The government could develop a data-centric understanding of economy’s behaviour and the money flow patterns. This could be used to in planning taxes.
According to the Union government, there are over 100 million active UPI (unified payment interface apps) users in the country. The MPFI’s aim is to increase it to 500 million active users by 2025. Mr Rana is the chairman of MPFI, which is a joint initiative of the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology, Hyderabad and Rural Technology Business Incubator, IIT Madras.
The Union government allocated ₹1,500 crore in last year’s budget to promote digital payments.
