Over 20 million Visa contactless cards have been issued in India, since the launch of its first contactless card in 2015, Visa, the global leader in payments technology said, reports Deccan Chronicle.

Visa has also revealed that the acceptance infrastructure for such cards has crossed over one million terminals across the country, a testimony to its initiative to push contactless payments in India.

Contactless card payments also help realise the government’s vision of Digital India. Over 3.3 million merchants in India reportedly accept cashless payments through multiple payment options. The government had issued a directive in July 2018 to consider adding contactless capabilities (NFC), in addition to the EMV chip feature, as part of the RBI's efforts to replace all existing magstripe cards by the end of 2018.

Contactless cards could make the payment experience smooth, considerably shortening checkout time from close to a minute to just a few seconds.

Consumers get the convenience of merely tapping and paying for transactions, whether at large retail outlets, the neighbourhood grocery or their favourite cinema.

Visa firmly believes that there is excellent opportunity to shift consumers to contactless payment cards for small-ticket transactions, in turn improving stickiness for digital payments with more than 1 billion debit and credit payment cards in circulation in the country.