Consider the following statements regarding e-RUPI prepaid digital vouchers: 1. The maximum amount of e-RUPI is rupees one lakh. 2. Beneficiaries can receive e-RUPI without having a bank account. 3. To receive e-RUPI on mobile phones, beneficiaries need a smart phone with Internet connection. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a)1 and 2
- (b)3 only
- (c)1 and 3
- (d)2 only
Correct — A, 1 and 2. Statement 1 is the figure as it stood at the time of this paper. The Reserve Bank's Governor's Statement of 10 February 2022 records that 'the e-RUPI pre-paid digital voucher developed by the NPCI was launched in August 2021. The single use cashless payment voucher has a cap of Rs 10,000. It is now proposed to increase the cap of e-RUPI vouchers issued by the Central government and State governments from Rs 10,000 to Rs 1,00,000 per voucher and permit such e-RUPI vouchers to be used more than once' — so one lakh is the ceiling, raised seven months before the September 2022 exam. Statement 2 is the whole point of the instrument. An e-RUPI voucher is a person-specific and purpose-specific prepaid entitlement that reaches the beneficiary as an SMS string or a QR code and is redeemed at the service provider by showing that code; the money sits with the issuer until redemption, so the person receiving it needs no bank account, no card and no payment app. Statement 3 is the one that fails, and it fails for the same reason statement 2 succeeds — a voucher delivered as an SMS text works on an ordinary feature phone, with no smartphone and no internet connection at the beneficiary's end.
- (b)3 only — Picks the single false statement and rejects the two true ones. Requiring a smartphone and data would defeat the design, which exists precisely to reach people who have neither.
- (c)1 and 3 — Keeps the correct one-lakh cap but pairs it with the smartphone claim. If a beneficiary needed a smartphone and internet, e-RUPI would have no advantage over a plain bank transfer.
- (d)2 only — Right about the bank account, wrong to reject the ceiling. One lakh is not a guess in the paper — it is the raised cap for Government-issued vouchers announced in February 2022. At the August 2021 launch the figure would indeed have been ten thousand, which is what makes this statement a date trap rather than a fact trap.
e-RUPI is a prepaid digital voucher built by the National Payments Corporation of India on the UPI rails, in partnership with the Department of Financial Services, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the National Health Authority. It was launched in August 2021. The idea is a cashless, contactless coupon that is tied to one named person and one named purpose — a dose of vaccine, a diagnostic test, a set of textbooks, a fertiliser subsidy — and can be spent only at the provider of that service. The sponsor pays, the beneficiary redeems, and neither the beneficiary's bank details nor any intermediary handling of cash comes into it.
Statement 3 is where this item is won, and the reasoning is about design intent rather than memory. Ask what problem a voucher of this kind is meant to solve. If the target beneficiary already had a smartphone, a data connection and a bank account, an ordinary direct benefit transfer would serve perfectly well; the voucher exists for the person who has none of those. That is why delivery is by SMS or a printed QR code, and why the beneficiary needs nothing but the phone that received the message. Statement 1 is a date-sensitive figure and the honest way to hold it is with its history attached — ten thousand rupees and single use at the August 2021 launch, one lakh and multiple use for Government-issued vouchers after the announcement of 10 February 2022. Corporate-issued vouchers were raised on a separate track and later. The caps have been revised more than once since, so quote the one-lakh figure as the position at the 2022 exam rather than as a permanent fact.
- e-RUPI was launched in August 2021, developed by the National Payments Corporation of India on the UPI system.
- At launch the voucher was single-use with a cap of ten thousand rupees; the RBI announced on 10 February 2022 that Government-issued vouchers would be raised to one lakh rupees and allowed to be redeemed more than once.
- The voucher is person-specific and purpose-specific — it can be spent only by the named beneficiary and only at the named service provider.
- It is delivered as an SMS string or a QR code, so no bank account, card, payment app or internet connection is needed at the beneficiary's end.
- The sponsor's money stays with the issuer until the voucher is redeemed, which removes leakage between sanction and delivery.
Because the voucher travels as text, statement 3's smartphone-and-internet requirement is exactly what e-RUPI was designed to avoid.
- Confusing e-RUPI, a prepaid voucher, with the digital rupee or e-Rupee, which is central bank money.
- Assuming a digital instrument must need a smartphone and internet; this one runs on SMS.
- Quoting the ten-thousand cap or the one-lakh cap without the date attached — both were correct at different times.
As a three-statement item on caps and prerequisites, or as a one-line question on what makes e-RUPI different from a direct benefit transfer.
With reference to digital payments, consider the following statements: 1. BHIM app allows the user to transfer money to anyone with a UPI-enabled bank account. 2. While a chip-PIN debit card has four factors of authentication, BHIM app has only two factors of authentication. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 only
- (c) Both 1 and 2
- (d) Neither 1 nor 2
Answer(a) 1 only
The same rails, an earlier product. BHIM and e-RUPI both sit on UPI, and both are examined the same way — by asking exactly what a beneficiary must possess before the instrument will work for them.
- practice — not a real PYQ
e-RUPI, the prepaid digital voucher launched in India in August 2021, was developed by
- (a)the Reserve Bank of India
- (b)the National Payments Corporation of India
- (c)the Securities and Exchange Board of India
- (d)the Unique Identification Authority of India
Answer(b) the National Payments Corporation of India — built on the UPI system with the Department of Financial Services, the health ministry and the National Health Authority.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following best describes what makes an e-RUPI voucher different from an ordinary direct benefit transfer?
- (a)It pays a higher amount
- (b)It is tied to one named beneficiary and one named purpose, and is redeemed at a specified provider
- (c)It can be converted into cash at any bank branch
- (d)It is issued only to holders of a credit card
Answer(b) It is tied to one named beneficiary and one named purpose, and is redeemed at a specified provider — the money moves only when the service is actually delivered.