MEITY to Conduct IT Security Drill for Banks Soon, Says Prasad

Law and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad Tuesday asked banks to incentivise digital transactions and said that the IT department will soon conduct security drill both for banks and National Payments Corporation of India to check safety of online payments.

Prasad met with senior representatives of public and private sector banks and other key departments where "he urged the banks to incentivise digital payments and transactions to bring more people into the fold of digital banking," an official statement said.

He remarked that to address concerns of cyber-security, the department will soon conduct security drill both for the banks and NPCI, the statement said.

Prasad said that digital payments need to be made convenient and flawless and banks have a very important role to play in Digital India and Digi DhanAbhiyan.

He requested that villages with majority tribal population be prioritised by banks for creating awareness on digital payments and transactions.

"This would be an opportunity for banks to become change agents to spread awareness about Digital India," Prasad said.

He urged the banks to create a uniform branding for promoting digital payments and such uniform branding would help create awareness amongst the general public on availability of digital transactions with merchants.

MEITY Secretary Aruna Sundarajan urged banks to work towards making USSD a preferable and convenient mode of digital payments, in light of the fact that majority of Jan-Dhan account holders would directly benefit from it.

She said that banks should set up an easy to access helpline dedicated for resolution of issues pertaining to digital payment transactions, the statement said.