Wallets are no longer in your pocket! Wallets are now in the digital space, in the form of an icon on your smartphone’s screen. Just load it with cash digitally or link it to your bank account, and you are all set to go. Pay from it and receive payment into it as you would have with your physical cash and bulging wallets.

Now wonder about this. Who could have thought that one could send money to anyone just like the way one sends email? All you need to know is the payee’s mobile number and whether that is linked digitally to his account. And then write the phone number or the UPI identification and transfer the amount desired instantly. OTP (for one-time password) is an acronym that every mobile telephone user knows.

Contrast this with the era of writing cheques. It does look archaic by today’s standard, but cheques were the earliest form of cashless transaction. You would carry the chequebook, and instead of paying cash, you would write the cheque in favour of the payee, who would have to go to a bank to cash it or deposit it at his bank and wait three days for the money to come in.

But smartphones are making the world of digital cash rock with new systems every other day. So much so that there is now talk of giving a voice command to your smartphone to transfer money. And then, of course, there are cryptocurrencies, an invention entirely of internet world —a payment mode that works like money yet is not money as we know it.

Or, take NFC or near-field communication. Two mobile phones with this technology can connect once they are within range, even without physical contact. Now think about this. Your debit or credit card no longer needs to be swiped on the point-of-sale machine. Just hold it over the PoS machine, and the payment goes through. No physical touch or pushing buttons.

Now, with the NFC-enabled payment system, even debit or credit cards could become archaic. Just install the NFC-enabled payment app on your smartphone, take it near an NFC-enabled PoS machine, and your payment will be through.

There is talk of a voice-activated payment system. With this technology, all that you need to do is to speak into your phone. The app scans your voice and the payment, instructed through voice again, would complete the process!

It looks like anybody with an internet space wants to be an agent or payment facilitator. Even social media does not want to be left behind. Check out WhatsApp. If your account is UPI enabled, you can use WhatsApp to send money to your chat buddy. Even five years back, nobody could think about such a facility built into a social media app!

But despite the excitement over such technologies making transactions easier, India is far from becoming a digital country. Worldwide, China, the USA and the UK are said to lead the pack in digital payment technologies. Such such payments require access to a bank account and a smartphone.

We seem to be taking cautious steps as it also requires safeguarding against cyber fraud. But India is making fast strides towards an economy to be largely ruled by cashless transactions.