AN ANALYSIS OF DIGITAL FINANCIAL SERVICES' MOBILITY DURING THE COVID-19 LOCKDOWN

Abstract

Despite being convenient and offering last-mile connectivity to an economy's financial system, digital financial inclusion has yet to reach a significant portion of the Indian population.   The COVID-19 pandemic gave the necessary impetus for the shift to digital financial inclusion.  In order to assess digital financial inclusion in India, the article makes an effort to analyze digital payment transactions using monthly growth percentages for the time period before to and during the lockdown.  The obstacles in India's path to digital financial inclusion are also noted in the study.  The RBI database, the National Payment Corporation of India database, and other reports provided the secondary data that served as the basis for this article.  The study comes to the conclusion that, in contrast to its hypothesis, the lockout caused immediate negative growth rates in digital payment transactions.  This demonstrated how the lockdown has a detrimental effect on using online banking services.  The paper emphasizes on the need to provide sufficient digital financial infrastructure, digital and financial awareness programmes, financial services specifically designed according to people’s needs and stable employment with sufficient social security to deal with the issues associated with digital financial exclusion.