Vikrant Shekhawat : Jul 08, 2024, 08:20 AM
UPI Transactions: In India, a large number of small shopkeepers and firms are using digital medium to take or give orders. This is because facilities like Unified Payment Interface (UPI) are reaching the last person of the society. According to a survey released by the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation, the use of internet for business purposes in the form of making payments through UPI or placing online orders has increased to 13.5 percent in rural areas between 2022-23 from 7.7 percent earlier. At the same time, it has increased to 30.2 percent in urban areas, which was earlier at 21.6 percent. In this way, there has been a combined increase of 7.2 percent in rural and urban areas.People are adopting digital payments rapidlyThis shows that people are adopting digital payments in the unorganized sector and the use of IT and digital platforms is increasing rapidly. According to the survey, the unorganized sector has seen an increase of 5.88 percent in the number of estimated establishments, 7.84 percent in the number of employees and 9.83 percent in gross value addition. The survey further stated that capital investment in the sector has increased, people's access to loans has increased and the use of IT has also increased.Loan availability increased for peopleAccording to the survey, the average fixed asset value of non-agricultural unorganized sector units has been Rs 3.18 lakh in 2022-23, which was Rs 2.81 lakh earlier, which shows that capital investment has increased in this sector. At the same time, the outstanding loan in 2021-22 was Rs 37,408 per unit, which has increased to Rs 50,138 in 2022-23. This shows that the availability of loans for the people has increased. According to the survey, 54 percent of unorganised sector units in the manufacturing sector are owned by women entrepreneurs, which shows that the women-centric schemes are benefiting at the ground level.