Why in the news?

•  Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched an electronic voucher based digital payment system “e-RUPI”.
• The platform, which has been developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the National Health Authority, will be a person-specific and purpose-specific payments system

How will e-RUPI work?

• e-RUPI is a cashless and contactless digital payments medium, which will be delivered to mobile phones of beneficiaries in the form of an SMS-string or a QR code. 
• This will essentially be like a prepaid gift-voucher that will be redeemable at specific accepting centres without any credit or debit card, a mobile app or internet banking. 
• e-RUPI will connect the sponsors of the services with the beneficiaries and service providers in a digital manner without any physical interface.

How will these vouchers be issued?

• The system has been built by NPCI on its UPI platform, and has onboarded banks that will be the issuing entities. 
• Any corporate or government agency will have to approach the partner banks, which are both private and public-sector lenders, with the details of specific persons and the purpose for which payments have to be made. 
• The beneficiaries will be identified using their mobile number and a voucher allocated by a bank to the service provider in the name of a given person would only be delivered to that person.

What are the use cases of e-RUPI?

• According to the government, e-RUPI is expected to ensure a leak-proof delivery of welfare services. 
• It can also be used for delivering services under schemes meant for providing drugs and nutritional support under Mother and Child welfare schemes, TB eradication programmes, drugs & diagnostics under schemes like Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, fertiliser subsidies etc.
•  The government also said that even the private sector can leverage these digital vouchers as part of their employee welfare and corporate social responsibility programmes.

What is the significance of e-RUPI and how is it different from a digital currency?

• The government is already working on developing a central bank digital currency and the launch of e-RUPI could potentially highlight the gaps in digital payments infrastructure that will be necessary for the success of the future digital currency. 
• In effect, e-RUPI is still backed by the existing Indian rupee as the underlying asset and specificity of its purpose makes it different to a virtual currency and puts it closer to a voucher-based payment system.
• Thus, e-RUPI is a digital voucher not a digital currency.

Reference:

1. https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/what-is-e-rupi-digital-currency-india-pm-modi-7433637/