Partner: Government of Rajasthan

Catalyst organised its first round-table with solution partners and, Government of Rajasthan as a launch-pad for its Digital Payments Lab in Jaipur.

The key objectives of the event were:

• Validate identified Cluster-centric & City wide initiatives, target metrics & timelines
• Disseminate learnings from the Merchant Adoption Drive: Digital Payment Shivir
• Review Implementation Projects and value proposition for partners Align on partner support requirements on the identified cluster/city-wide initiatives

Key Outcomes:

Linkages between Tax and Payments: The audience at the round-table indicated harassment from tax authorities being a key apprehension for small merchants to move towards digitisation. Measures to prevent retrospective taxation was proposed as an interim recommendation by the CM�s Committee on Digital Payments. The discussion outlined GST implementation as an opportunity to promote digital payments thereby simplifying the data compliance requirement.

Importance of Digitising Supply Chain Payments: Solution Partners reinforced the importance and presence of key decision-makers like brands & local distributors in digitising the supply-chain stream to sustain merchant adoption. A round-table was proposed to bring the various supply-chain ecosystem players together to co-create a solution that addresses & identifies gaps in the current value-chain and publish a data-driven study with recommendations for policymakers & industry players.

Deeper Engagement with Banks having local footprint: With participation from major banks in Jaipur, the forum addressed the opportunities for collaboration with banks to address solution on-boarding challenges (UPI in-specific) that was derived as learning from the merchant adoption drive. The criticality of instituting an effective grievance redressal medium to build trust amongst merchants & consumers and leveraging on co-branded consumer/youth facing citizen campaign were identified as instrumental areas of partnership with the bank’s local consumer base.

Projects & Road-map: Partners brainstormed on the list of cluster & city-wide projects that were identified in the implementation roadmap. Prospective partners de-briefed the audience about their solution offerings to align with ground experiments and expressed interest in relevant projects. Projects such as Dairy & E-mitra digitisation witnessed significant interest amongst Solution Partners, considering the window of opportunity given the cash-heavy nature of these businesses. Creating solid project proposals & strategic engagement terms were taken away as key action items on the implementation plan roadmap & review.

Merchant Adoption Drive: Insights from the lead-generation exercise and 3-day adoption drive were shared with the forum members highlighting the learnings from Solution Partners who participated in the drive. Merchant’s total cost of ownership & the need for behavioural shift surfaced as factors that largely influenced merchant adoption. GoR accentuated the need to bring in as many solutions as offerings to the experiment ground and allow for the market to influence the most apt solution. Educating both the merchant & consumer community simultaneously was underlined critical to endorse sustenance towards digital payments

30 delegates representing 16 organisations participated in the event.