In the Digital Payment Awards 2024-25, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman gave awards to banks and financial institutions promoting digital payments in different categories. Along with this, she also put forth her views on digital payments.

In the Digital Payment Awards 2024-25, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman gave awards to banks and financial institutions promoting digital payments in different categories. Along with this, she also put forth her views on digital payments. She said- 'The speed at which India is progressing on the digital payment front is a dream for many developed countries of the world.'

The Finance Minister said, "The adoption rate of digital payments in India is 87%, while the global average is 67%. A World Bank study says that 80 percent of financial inclusion has been achieved in just 6 years. About half (48.4%) of all real-time digital transactions in the world take place in India."

Finance will be physical in the future.

Further, she said, "RBI's soft touch regulation on UPI has benefited. In such a situation, now after UPI, it is the turn of digital lending intervention. Credit growth is needed for MSMEs. Deep fakes are causing a lot of damage. In the future, finance will be physical, that is, physical and digital. Physical has given a new word. Along with technology, there will be a need to reach every area in a physical way. By 2028-29, our country's fintech business will be worth 400 billion dollars."

Who got the award?

For promoting digital payments, Punjab National Bank received the first Digital Payment Award in the category of public sector banks. Bank of Baroda came second and UCO Bank came third. Among private sector banks, HDFC received the first award, City Union Bank came second and IDFC First Bank received the third award. Apart from these, Equitas Small Finance Bank won in the category of Small Finance Bank and India Post Payment Bank received the award in the category of Payment Bank.