A cashless society describes the economic state whereby financial transactions

are not concluded with money in the form of physical banknotes or coins, but
rather through the transfer of digital information through the transactions
parties. Cashless societies have existed based on barter system and other
methods of exchange and cashless transaction have also become possible using
digital currencies such as bitcoin.

INTRODUCTION
However this report discusses about the term “cashless societies” in the sense
of a move towards, and implications of a society where cash is replaced by its
digital equivalent. The world is experiencing a rapid and increasing use of digital
methods of recording, managing and exchanging money in commerce,
investment and daily life. Many parts of world and transaction which would
historically have been undertaken with cash are often undertaken electronically.
Some countries now set limits on transaction and transaction values for which
non-electric payments may be legally used.

My team members and I found the topic interesting and decided

to explore it further. We conducted online surveys to know
more about the topic.
A brainstorming session was held. During the same the major
concern about the topic was found out.
It has the potential to be helpful for central government and economics, in the
context of global negative inflation and quantitative easing and central control
of the money supply. A cashless society is convenient and fast; however it also
increases ignorance of individual spending and vulnerability to fraud. Consumer
ignorance of spending increases as they are less aware when they are swiping
their cards to complete their transaction that if they budgeted their money and
paid in cash.

During the discussion, Muskan Anand was of the opinion that moving towards
Cashless Economy has made it advantageous for our society:
The summed up benefits are recorded as follows:

• Efficient and convenient

Going digital, it helps to reduce the hassle of drawing cash or making sure
that cash-in-hand is sufficient to make a payment in places where only
cash payment is allowed. With a digitalized payment system, it speeds up
the process of financial transaction and boosts the efficiency of the
transaction.
• Government bodies
Rather than conducting costly and periodic surveys and sampling of
realworld transactions, real data collected on citizen’s spending can assist
in devising and implementing policies that are deduced from actual data.
With recorded financial transactions, the Government can better track the
movement of the money through financial records which enables them to
track the black money and illegal transactions taking place in the country.
• Businesses
Cashless payments would eliminate the fear of businesses receiving
counterfeit money and flush out illegal cash. The risks of storing cash will
also be reduced as payments are made digitally.

However, Mridul Garg said that it is not a hassle free task and recorded
some disadvantages to it:

The issue of privacy

In a digitized economy, payment made will be traceable. With
traceable transactions, institutions would have potential access to
this information. With these digital traces left behind, digital
transactions become vulnerable. Such transactions allow
businesses a way to build a consumer’s personal profiles based on
their spending patterns.
• Exclusion of certain population

Implementing a cashless system exclude the involvement of certain

population such as the poor or near poor and the older generation.
Heading towards a cashless society, citizens that do not hold the
power or knowledge of engaging in digital transactions are left
behind. To be able to transact using e-payment, it requires one to
hold a bank account, which can hold their money.

After interacting with many people online, Prachi Singhal came

to know the effects of demonetisation that provided a major boost
towards Cashless India.
 1. Against the backdrop of demonetisation exercise that shoots up
the Indian economy , there is a major tussle brewing in the
consumer banking space in India.
2. Demonetisation arguably the most important trigger of this race
was an involuntary exercise that the country underwent. The two
largest currency the denominations the INR 2000 notes were
declared along with the INR 500 notes were made unvalued.
Also new INR 500 and INR 2000 came into existence as valued
by the RBI.
3. The government efforts to encourage people to enter the
banking system through small instruments and don't solve
systematic issues. Among these issues the fact is that the people
needs can happen easily for reason that includes not having a
tipping point. In terms of moving a critical man of people in the
banking system that would make non cash transaction an
alternative.
4. The printing of the new currency was begun only a month
before the declaration but the demand for the new currency
shift the supply leading to daily cash shortage at the Bank and
ATM.

COUNTRIES GOING CASHLESS

Belgium, France, Canada are some of the countries which follow the
aspect of cashless economy more than the other countries. In the above
listed countries about 90% of the people use the digital transaction
method for the daily purpose.
UK, Sweden, Australia and Netherlands also have a high rate of the digital
transaction taking place but most people prefer cash for the day-to-day
purpose.
Our country India as a developing country has adopted the measure of the
cashless economy but due to its diversity, it is logging.
 SURVEY REPORT

A mass survey was conducted by our team on the proposed topic. We

acquired a good number of responses from a wide spectrum of audience.

Puru Azad concluded the survey report and summarized the responses
by putting forward his views. A large number of responses believe that
digital payment helps the economy in some or the other way since they
too prefer cashless methods of payments. For day to day transactions.
Most of the audience prefer online payment and UPI for the said purpose.
It is a well known crises that is widespread all over the world i.e. Covid-19
which has impacted the lives of all the human beings. Therefore people
go with cashless methods during such time of crisis and religiously believe
that such ways make payment easier.

It is even advantageous for a developing country like India where the IT

sector is benefitted majorly and reduce the risk of fake currency as well as
much prevailed corruption. It would probably prevent money laundering
and could help MSMEs in ways of payment.

On the contrary, people feel it complicated sometimes in case of technical

assistance etc.

The government has also put in several efforts to make online payments
prevailing. The most common instance that can be witnessed is
demonetization.

*The reader can find all the statistics of the survey in further pages.
SURVEY STATISTICS
 CONCLUSION
AFTER CONDUCTING THE SURVEYS AND DISCUSSIONS, OM GARG COULD
EVENTUALLY CONCLUDE THE FOLLOWING:
There are various countries in the world which are going cashless. The use non
cash payment for day-to-day consumption expenditure. There are various
reasons in which the country is to be digitalised. It has become necessary to
understand about the cashless economy and its features as nowadays our
country India is also going to be digitalised due to the increasing amount of
black money.
Our country faced a huge money crisis the old notes were demonetised. During
the time of demonetisation the new notes were available at the lowest rate, so
many people tried to exchange the product through the mobile banking system.
People are changing their trends and the government is imposing cashless
transaction into the country. So the need to understand about the cashless
economy is highly necessary.
Going cashless in India is a big transformation as people in rural areas are
unaware of the cashless way of transaction. Therefore it’s study has become
important for the growing youth.
SNAPSHOTS OF DISCUSSION