Bangalore, October 2 2016: Indians sometimes, don't give  credit  to themselves , even when it is richly deserved.  Payment technology is a case in point. Thanks to an RBI mandate, credit  and debit cards began embedding a chip for added security, two  years ago. A thief can't swipe a card you  may have lost and empty your account.  To complete a transaction requires not just your card details, but a PIN number that only you know.  This is called  two factor authentication. There is hardly a point of sale in India where the card reader  has not been updated to read chip cards.
In the US, holders of chip cards  still face a problem because  many POS  machines in supermarkets and other establishments  have not updated to scan the chip.
We were late in  hitching the nation to the digital wagon -- but we are making up for lost time and have raced to the head of the queue in some respects.  A great example is the new technology of  contactless  payment  where again, thanks to a pragmatic view taken by RBI,  two-factor authentication has been relaxed, only for transactions up to Rs 2000 at a time.  Now you don't need to enter your pin, but you do need a  new type of card that is embedded with a technology called Near Field Communication or NFC.  If you card is NFC-enabled  it will have a tiny antenna embedded in it. If  terminal at the shop or  counter where you are trying to make a small payment is also so-enabled,  card and terminal will 'speak' to each other wirelessly. All you need to do,  is wave your card, bringing it within 4 cms of  a special screen in the terminal. If the attendant has entered an amount on the screen, the payment will go through.
Of the major  electronic payment companies, Visa is the first in India to launch this technology. They call it  payWave.   Right now some  Indian banks -- Axis, IndusInd, Bank of Baroda, SBI, IDBI and ICICI --  are offering  Visa payWave- compatible cards to their customers.   Others will follow pretty soon. But  there is no use holding an NFC-embedded card, unless major establishments  also upgrade their terminals. And  since this is not the US of A,  the change is taking place fast. Chains  like Big Bazaar, Vishal Megamart, Dominos and Inox multiplexes have been among the first to  upgrade. I am guessing by year end  most POSs in the country will have upgraded.
There is another advantage of moving into the wave-and-pay era: Even if you don't own  one of the new cards, you can still enjoy the convenience. How?   By using your mobile phone. Visa  let  you to download a mobile phone app-- and if your phone is NFC-enabled,  it will work exactly as the wave-n-pay card does. So,  here is another feature you must check when you buy a new  hand phone. Remember to ask: "Is it NFC enabled?' - AnandParthasarathy