PM Modi: e-RUPI to deliver ‘targeted, transparent, leakage-free’ benefits

The e-RUPI platform, has been developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and the National Health Authority is a cashless and contactless digital payments medium, which will be delivered to mobile phones of beneficiaries in form of an SMS-string or a QR code.

This people-specific and purpose-specific payments system will essentially function like a prepaid gift-voucher that will be redeemable at specific accepting centres without any credit or debit card, a mobile app or internet banking. e-RUPI will connect the sponsors of the services with the beneficiaries and service providers in a digital manner without any physical interface.

The Prime Minister also spoke about how technology was being leveraged to bring in transparency and integrity in transactions while making available newer opportunities for the poor. “For reaching today’s unique product, foundation was prepared over the years by creating the JAM (Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile) system which connected mobile and Aadhaar. Benefits of JAM took some time to be visible to people and we saw how we could help the needy during the lockdown period while other countries were struggling to help their people,” he said.

He added that so far, over Rs 17.5 lakh crore has been transferred directly to the accounts of the people via DBT through over 300 schemes. “The biggest benefit of this all is that Rs 1.78 lakh crore were prevented from going to the wrong hands.”

According to the government, e-RUPI — built on NPCI’s UPI system — would ensure leak-proof delivery of welfare services. It will initially be deployed alongside the National Digital Health Mission and to support the vaccine drive, but added that it can also be used for delivering services under schemes meant for providing drugs and nutritional support.