# Users' Awareness Towards Digital Financial Transactions: A Study Conducted in India

K. Kajol, Ranjit Singh

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K. Kajol, Ranjit Singh. Users' Awareness Towards Digital Financial Transactions: A Study Conducted in India. International Working Conference on Transfer and Diffusion of IT (TDIT), Jun 2022, Maynooth, Ireland. pp.331-345, 10.1007/978-3-031-17968-6\_27. http-04666763

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Users' Awareness towards Digital Financial Transactions:

A study conducted in Nagaland, India

K. Kajol¹[0000-0003-3000-8110] and Prof. Ranjit Singh²[0000-0001-9408-9525]

¹Research Scholar, Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Information Technology Allahabad, India,

Email: rsm2018003@iiita.ac.in, Kajol.1096@gmail.com

Mob: +91-7007960863

²Professor, Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Information Technology Allahabad, India

Email: ranjitsingh@iiita.ac.in

Mob: +91-9532766339

Abstract

The growing use of smartphones is boosting the demand for such digital services in the financial space. The digital financial transaction is gaining popularity all over the globe; however, there are numerous challenges as well at the global level, especially for a person not familiar with changing technology. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to access the level of awareness of digital financial transactions among digital payment users in India. Authors have used the recall method to access the level of awareness. The structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data from 208 individuals having a sufficient level of literacy to operate a digital transaction. The data was analyzed using SPSS software. The finding shows that Indian users have a moderate level of awareness of digital financial transactions. The level of awareness was high among the male respondents. There are some significant differences between researchers' demographic and personal characteristics and their levels and actions with regard to digital payment. The implications provided in the study will not only help scholars in further research in the concerned area but also for policymakers and managers in formulating policies and strategies to promote the adoption of digital financial transactions. The study also sets the future research agenda.

Keywords: Digital financial transactions, awareness, mis-information, digital innovation
# 1. Introduction

In the era of digitization, a transaction using technology is the best way of being agile and giving better service to customers [1]. The use of non-cash transactions caught attention during the 1990s, with the growing popularity of electronic banking among developed nations. The technological breakthroughs and regulatory reforms of the past decades have brought payment media to the forefront of business, social and political interests [2]. Today, the digitalization of transactions has become essential for banking and financial institutions for their survival and growth. India is not untouched by this digital revolution and the ever-increasing number of digital transactions in the financial sector is moving it up the ladder among other nations. India has rapidly digitized its payment systems and promises huge potential in the area. The Digital India initiative started by the Indian government has given a tremendous boost to the usage of digital payment systems throughout the country. The progress in digital payments has been driven by a healthy mix of technological innovation, policy interventions, and expansion and strengthening of existing infrastructure on the supply side, coupled with an increasing proportion of the population adopting financial and digital instruments on the demand side.

Digital payments offer not only convenience by saving time and labor, but also help the government in its fight against black money and counterfeiting currency [3]. Usage of digital financial transactions (DFTs) provides speed, security, and transparency of data [4]. However, there are huge implicit costs to digitizing the existing systems and nudging people to change. The use of cash still seems to be on the uptick in India [5]. While cash may appear to be convenient, as it's ingrained in habits and is still readily accepted in more places, and free of any direct transactional cost; it is still costly for both governments and end-users[6]. As per a survey conducted in 2014, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and commercial banks collectively spent nearly 210 billion rupees on currency-related operating expenses in the year 2014, while the people of Delhi spent approximately 91 million rupees to access cash in the same year [7].

There are two main characteristics of the Indian economy. First, it is a developing economy characterized by a middle-class population with huge opportunities for employment and entrepreneurship. And second, the population is mostly made up of people who live in rural areas that don't have as much knowledge about innovations as people who live in urban areas [8]. There is strong evidence that awareness can alter the perception or response of people towards a given product to a large extent, and thus, consequently change their final decisions [9]. Therefore, the existence of awareness among individuals about financial transactions acts as a motivator and enhances their engagement in the banking system [10]–[12]. An extensive review of past studies
showed that research on awareness towards DFTs or related financial innovation is extremely sparse [13]–[19]. Thus, accessing awareness is critical to explain the DFTs adoption pattern. The study's novelty stems from the authors' attempt to shed light on one of the most critical factors, 'awareness'. The key objectives of the present study are to (1) examine the overall level of awareness among the individuals towards DFTs; (2) find out if there is any miss-awareness about the same; and (3) finally to identify the factors affecting awareness towards DFTs. The study attempts to answer the following key research questions:

RQ1. What is the overall level of awareness towards DFTs among people?

RQ2. Is there any mis-awareness towards the DFTs among people?

RQ3. Are there some people who are pretending to be aware about DFTs?

RQ4. What are the demographic factors that affect the awareness towards DFTs?

## 2. Theoretical background and Literature review

Ajwani-Ramchandani [20] found that a very large segment of the population around the world is not conversant with the use of digital payment alternatives. Many people are not using digital payment due to a lack of knowledge and interest [21]. Lack of awareness is a serious problem for a developing country like India [22]. It would take a lot of effort to steer the country on the path to a cashless economy because millions of people are yet to cultivate the banking habit [23]. Antitrust concerns in the market for payment media stem from the lack of information, improving consumer awareness could be a remedy [24]. The goal of awareness measurement is to determine what people know as well as what they do not know [25]. The concept of awareness attempts to explore how the customers establish their knowledge of the products or services and to what extent they are lacking information about it [26]. Past researchers have provided various models and theories of awareness [13], [22], [24], [25], [27]–[30]. One of the classic explanations for the level of awareness was given by Smith in the year 1999 [31]. He propounded that there are three levels of awareness [31] consciousness, precociousness, and unconsciousness. Consciousness encompasses an individual's instantaneous thinking and reasoning. According to Nilsson [32], conscious individuals are more likely to use provided services. Conscious users have a better understanding of the benefits of the given innovation and thus they adopt the given innovation quickly. The preconscious is a repository of information that exists just beneath the level of awareness. It is easily retrievable and is frequently referred to as memory or recollection. Albert [33] discovered that the preconscious mind has a greater role in trust acquisition than previously believed. According to Singh and Malik [8], those who are aware
of DFTs do not use them and do not trust the virtual channel supporting the banking transactions. Individuals at
a preconscious level need to be informed about the privacy and security risks associated with digital payment
systems. This consequently may help in the acceptance of digital payments [34], [35]. The unconscious mind
contains buried thoughts, memories, and desires. Even though individuals are unaware of the stages involved in
financial decision-making (planning, decision-making, execution, and feedback), they have a significant
influence on their behaviour [36]. Training and development programs are used to bring unconscious people to
the level of conscious. Thus, the level of awareness of individuals toward DFTs must be assessed at the mastery
level, where it is assumed that users possess all information.

Awareness could be measured through the recall and recognition method [37]. The recall is the mental
reproduction of some target item experienced or learned earlier, whereas recognition is the awareness of having
previously experienced those stimuli. Operationally, in the recall, some contextual cue is provided and the
respondent must retrieve the target item from memory. In recognition, the target item is provided and the
contextual circumstances of the earlier event or experience must be retrieved. The present study uses the recall
method of testing awareness about DFTs because of their relative merit over the recognition method [37]. The
study is expected to fill this research gap one from the perspective of its geographical coverage, i.e., India, and
secondly from the perspective of its timeline, i.e., post COVID-19, by shedding some light on the impact of the
Indian government's initiatives to promote DFTs adoption during the nationwide lockdown. The authors design
the following hypothesis:

*H₀₁:* There is no significant association between demographic variables and awareness of DFTs.

**3. Methodology**

The study is based on the analysis of primary as well as secondary data. The primary data was collected using a
structured questionnaire while the secondary data was obtained from relevant sources such as journals, official
reports, newspapers, etc. for providing necessary background information on the study area. Individuals having
a sufficient level of literacy to operate a DFTs were considered as a sample unit in the study. Using simple
random sampling methods, a sample of 208 respondents was collected through an online survey.[38]–[42] are
some of the scholars who attempted to measure the awareness level of different subjects. Even though their
works were not related to measuring the awareness level of DFTs, their approach needs special mention. These
studies have provided a base to the authors for accessing awareness levels. There were certain limitations in the
methodology adopted in these papers. It was observed that the respondents were unaware of their level of
awareness, and sometimes they were confused about the product. Moreover, some respondents pretended to be more knowledgeable. There are two types of awareness measures: recall and recognition [37]. A recall is the mental recreation of a previously experienced or learned target item, whereas recognition is the awareness of having previously experienced those stimuli. In the recall, a contextual cue is given, and the respondent must retrieve the target item from memory. The target item is provided in recognition, and the contextual circumstances of the previous event or experience must be retrieved. The recall method of testing awareness about DFTs was used in this research due to its superiority over the recognition method [37]. A questionnaire was designed to evaluate the awareness of individuals about DFTs. The questionnaire was so designed to examine the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious levels of mind for DFTs. The questionnaire is framed using the variables identified by [42]–[45], and several other documents issued by the government. Thirty-one multiple-choice questions were designed based on DFTs. For measuring awareness levels using the recall method, there were five options. Only one of the five options was correct, three were incorrect, and the fifth was "not aware of." Thus, a respondent who gave the correct answer was thought to be aware and knowledgeable, whereas a respondent who gave the incorrect answer was thought to be pretending to be aware. In addition, information such as their age, gender, income, qualification, and occupation was requested.

We apply multiple regression models to find the impact of select variables on the awareness of DFT. The SPSS software is used to execute the analysis process. SPSS and Microsoft Excel have been used to analyze and interpret the data and Cronbach's alpha method has been used to verify the reliability and validity of the questionnaire. The profile of the respondents is given in table 1.

<table><caption>Table 1: Profile of the respondents</caption><thead><tr><th>Variable</th><th>Frequency</th><th>Percentage (%)</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Gender</td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Male</td><td>112</td><td>53.8</td></tr><tr><td>Female</td><td>96</td><td>46.2</td></tr><tr><td>Age</td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>15 – 30 years</td><td>198</td><td>95.2</td></tr><tr><td>30 – 40 years</td><td>7</td><td>3.4</td></tr><tr><td>40 – 60 years</td><td>1</td><td>0.5</td></tr><tr><td>60 years and above</td><td>2</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>Education</td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Uneducated</td><td>1</td><td>0.5</td></tr><tr><td>Primary</td><td>0</td><td>0</td></tr><tr><td>Secondary</td><td>7</td><td>3.4</td></tr><tr><td>Higher Secondary</td><td>38</td><td>18.3</td></tr><tr><td>Graduate</td><td>0</td><td>0</td></tr><tr><td>Post Graduate</td><td>123</td><td>59.1</td></tr><tr><td>Others</td><td>39</td><td>18.8</td></tr><tr><td>Occupation</td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Business</td><td>18</td><td>8.7</td></tr><tr><td>Service</td><td>20</td><td>9.6</td></tr><tr><td>Agriculturist</td><td>4</td><td>1.9</td></tr><tr><td>Student</td><td>154</td><td>74</td></tr></tbody></table>
<table><tr><td>Home Maker</td><td>11</td><td>5.3</td></tr><tr><td>Retired</td><td>1</td><td>5</td></tr><tr><td>Annual Family Income (Rs)</td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Below 1 lakhs</td><td>176</td><td>84.6</td></tr><tr><td>1 - 2 lakhs</td><td>22</td><td>10.6</td></tr><tr><td>2 - 4 lakhs</td><td>8</td><td>3.8</td></tr><tr><td>4 - 6 lakhs</td><td>1</td><td>0.5</td></tr><tr><td>6 lakhs and above</td><td>1</td><td>0.5</td></tr><tr><td>Physically Challenged</td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Yes</td><td>44</td><td>21.2</td></tr><tr><td>No</td><td>164</td><td>78.8</td></tr><tr><td>Locality</td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Rural</td><td>101</td><td>48.6</td></tr><tr><td>Urban</td><td>107</td><td>51.4</td></tr><tr><td>Email</td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Yes</td><td>155</td><td>74.5</td></tr><tr><td>No</td><td>53</td><td>25.5</td></tr></table>

Source: Compiled by authors

## 4. Results

There were total 31 numbers of multiple-choice questions in the questionnaire. By applying item-total correlation in the above items it was found that the item-total correlation value of question no. 31 was less than 0.2, which means that there does not correlate very well with the overall score and thus it can be dropped. So, a total of 30 questions were used to analyze the awareness level.

The reliability of the scale constructed to measure awareness about DFTs is tested using Cronbach's alpha. A Cronbach's alpha of more than 0.70 is considered to be a good measure of the reliability of the scale [46]. Thus, in the present study, it can be inferred that the scale is a reliable one, since the value of Cronbach's Alpha is 0.821, and it is measuring the latent variable namely awareness of DFTs.

Each question carries a score of one. Then a total score has been found by adding the scores of all the questions. The maximum possible score of awareness level was 30 (30×1) and the minimum possible score was zero (30×0). The difference between the maximum and minimum possible score was 30. To ascertain the awareness level at five levels, this range was divided by 5. It is found to be 6. Adding 6 with 0 (lowest possible score), it was obtained the very low awareness level (0-6). Similarly, adding 6 with subsequent values, the next higher range was obtained. The interpreted score of awareness level for DFTs is given in table 2.

<table><caption>**Table 2:** Interpretation of score on awareness about DFTs</caption><thead><tr><td>Score value</td><td>Interpretation of score value</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>0-6</td><td>Very low level of awareness</td></tr><tr><td>6-12</td><td>Low level of awareness</td></tr><tr><td>12-18</td><td>Moderate level of awareness</td></tr><tr><td>18-24</td><td>High level of awareness</td></tr><tr><td>24-30</td><td>Very high level of awareness</td></tr></tbody></table>
The overall awareness level of the entire respondent is, calculated by adding their score from the questionnaire and it is given in Table 3.

<table><caption>**Table 3:** Overall awareness level</caption><thead><tr><th>Level of awareness level</th><th>Frequency</th><th>Percent</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Very low level of awareness</td><td>20</td><td>9.62</td></tr><tr><td>Low level of awareness</td><td>76</td><td>36.54</td></tr><tr><td>Moderate level of awareness</td><td>85</td><td>40.87</td></tr><tr><td>High level of awareness</td><td>25</td><td>12.02</td></tr><tr><td>Very high level of awareness</td><td>2</td><td>0.95</td></tr><tr><td>Total</td><td>208</td><td>100</td></tr><tr><td>Mean</td><td colspan="2">12.95</td></tr><tr><td>Std. Deviation</td><td colspan="2">5.15</td></tr><tr><td>Minimum</td><td colspan="2">0</td></tr><tr><td>Maximum</td><td colspan="2">26</td></tr></tbody></table>

Similarly, those who have given the wrong answer are considered they are not informed but pretending to be informed or to be aware of DFTs. Similar to Table 3, another table is prepared to interpret the pretending to be informed score or misinformed score and it is given in Table 4.

<table><caption>**Table 4:** Interpretation of pretending to be informed score</caption><thead><tr><th>Score value</th><th>Interpretation of score value</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>0-6</td><td>Very low level of mis-information</td></tr><tr><td>6-12</td><td>Low level of mis-information</td></tr><tr><td>12-18</td><td>Moderate level of mis-information</td></tr><tr><td>18-24</td><td>High level of mis-information</td></tr><tr><td>24-30</td><td>Very high level of mis-information</td></tr></tbody></table>

Overall, the level of mis-information of the respondent is calculated by adding their score from the questionnaire. Then its value is interpreted using Table 4. The overall frequencies of mis-awareness are presented in Table 5.

<table><caption>**Table 5:** Overall level of mis-information</caption><thead><tr><th>Level of awareness level</th><th>Frequency</th><th>Percent</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Very low level of mis-information</td><td>82</td><td>39.42</td></tr><tr><td>Low level of mis-information</td><td>88</td><td>42.31</td></tr><tr><td>Moderate level of mis-information</td><td>25</td><td>12.02</td></tr><tr><td>High level of mis-information</td><td>10</td><td>4.81</td></tr><tr><td>Very high level of mis-information</td><td>3</td><td>1.44</td></tr><tr><td>Total</td><td>208</td><td>100</td></tr><tr><td>Mean</td><td colspan="2">8.72</td></tr><tr><td>Std. Deviation</td><td colspan="2">5.01</td></tr><tr><td>Minimum</td><td colspan="2">1</td></tr><tr><td>Maximum</td><td colspan="2">26</td></tr></tbody></table>
To study the impact of select demographic and socio-economic variables on awareness towards digital transactions, all the statements in the questionnaire used to measure awareness are added to get the total awareness score.

<table><caption>Table 6: Item analysis for information among DFTs users</caption><thead><tr><td>Particulars</td><td>Mean</td><td>Std. Deviation</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>About Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD)</td><td>0.0673</td><td>0.25116</td></tr><tr><td>Maximum limit of making transactions through Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM)</td><td>0.1587</td><td>0.36623</td></tr><tr><td>About National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT)</td><td>0.1635</td><td>0.37068</td></tr><tr><td>About the number of accounts to be linked with a single digital wallet</td><td>0.1635</td><td>0.37068</td></tr><tr><td>About only transfer mechanism that transfer money between different accounts and does not hold money</td><td>0.1635</td><td>0.37068</td></tr><tr><td>The idea about mobile applications that do not have a digital wallet</td><td>0.1875</td><td>0.39125</td></tr><tr><td>Awareness about payment gateway</td><td>0.1971</td><td>0.39878</td></tr><tr><td>Awareness about Unified Payment Interface (UPI)</td><td>0.2115</td><td>0.40938</td></tr><tr><td>Transaction limit in UPI for a single transaction</td><td>0.2115</td><td>0.40938</td></tr><tr><td>Devices require for making payment through a banking card at a shop</td><td>0.25</td><td>0.43406</td></tr><tr><td>Awareness about Immediate Payment Service (IMPS)</td><td>0.2692</td><td>0.44463</td></tr><tr><td>Idea about QR code</td><td>0.3173</td><td>0.46655</td></tr><tr><td>Devices required for making a payment with Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS)</td><td>0.351</td><td>0.47842</td></tr><tr><td>Services offered by Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS)</td><td>0.3558</td><td>0.4799</td></tr><tr><td>Different forms of UPI</td><td>0.3558</td><td>0.4799</td></tr><tr><td>Details UPI app collects for user bank account verification</td><td>0.3894</td><td>0.4888</td></tr><tr><td>Regarding regulators of the functioning of UPI in India</td><td>0.3942</td><td>0.48986</td></tr><tr><td>Awareness about internet banking</td><td>0.4423</td><td>0.49786</td></tr><tr><td>Details that are necessary while requesting for Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) transfer</td><td>0.4663</td><td>0.50007</td></tr><tr><td>About means of making digital payment</td><td>0.5673</td><td>0.49664</td></tr><tr><td>About adding money to a digital wallet</td><td>0.5721</td><td>0.49597</td></tr><tr><td>Devices needed to make DFTs.</td><td>0.5769</td><td>0.49524</td></tr><tr><td>About transferring money through the Unified Payment Interface (UPI)</td><td>0.6298</td><td>0.48402</td></tr><tr><td>The document is mandatory to avail of any kind of digital payment services</td><td>0.6827</td><td>0.46655</td></tr><tr><td>About debit cards</td><td>0.6827</td><td>0.46655</td></tr><tr><td>Types of UPIs mechanism</td><td>0.6971</td><td>0.46061</td></tr><tr><td>About debit card</td><td>0.7452</td><td>0.4368</td></tr><tr><td>Awareness about debit cards regulator</td><td>0.851</td><td>0.35699</td></tr><tr><td>Awareness about the usage of digital wallets</td><td>0.8654</td><td>0.34214</td></tr><tr><td>Payment Security</td><td>0.9038</td><td>0.29551</td></tr></tbody></table>

Source: Compiled by authors

A multiple regression model was used by considering awareness score as the dependent variable. The corresponding independent variables are gender, locality, age, education, occupation, and income. The findings of the multiple regressions are presented in Tables 7, 8, and 9.
<table><caption>Table 7: Model Summary</caption><thead><tr><th>Model</th><th>R</th><th>R Square</th><th>Adjusted Square</th><th>R</th><th>Std. Error of the Estimate</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1</td><td>.388<sup>a</sup></td><td>.151</td><td>.125</td><td></td><td>4.81565</td></tr></tbody></table>

<table><caption>Table 8: ANOVA</caption><thead><tr><th>Model</th><th></th><th>Sum of Squares</th><th>df</th><th>Mean Square</th><th>F</th><th>Sig.</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td rowspan="3">1</td><td>Regression</td><td>826.238</td><td>6</td><td>137.706</td><td rowspan="3">5.938</td><td rowspan="3">.000<sup>b</sup></td></tr><tr><td>Residual</td><td>4661.281</td><td>201</td><td>23.190</td></tr><tr><td>Total</td><td>5487.519</td><td>207</td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

<table><caption>Table 9: Coefficients</caption><thead><tr><th rowspan="2">Model</th><th rowspan="2"></th><th colspan="2">Unstandardized Coefficients</th><th>Standardized Coefficients</th><th rowspan="2">t</th><th rowspan="2">Sig.</th></tr><tr><th>B</th><th>Std. Error</th><th>Beta</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td rowspan="8">1</td><td>(Constant)</td><td>2.199</td><td>2.567</td><td></td><td>.857</td><td>.393</td></tr><tr><td>Gender</td><td>.016</td><td>.696</td><td>.002</td><td>.023</td><td>.982</td></tr><tr><td>Locality</td><td>2.513</td><td>.680</td><td>.244</td><td>3.696</td><td>.000</td></tr><tr><td>Age</td><td>1.540</td><td>.732</td><td>.142</td><td>2.105</td><td>.037</td></tr><tr><td>Education</td><td>1.230</td><td>.304</td><td>.268</td><td>4.044</td><td>.000</td></tr><tr><td>Occupation</td><td>.258</td><td>.331</td><td>.052</td><td>.780</td><td>.436</td></tr><tr><td>Income</td><td>-.129</td><td>.599</td><td>-.014</td><td>-.215</td><td>.830</td></tr></tbody></table>

Thus, Table 7 shows the value of R square to be 0.151 which implies that the independent variables are 15.1% responsible for explaining variations in the dependent variable, i.e., awareness score. Table 8, ANOVA test provides that the regression is significant with p-value 0.000 and Table 9 shows locality (p = 0.000), age (p = 0.037) and education (p = 0.000) are significant in determining dependent variable awareness score.

## 5. Discussion

The analysis and results have provided three important insights. First, there is a moderate level of awareness among the people living in Nagaland, India, since the mean value of awareness score is 12.95 which falls in the category of 'moderate level of awareness'. The responses under this category are also highest among all the class intervals, i.e., 85. Table 3 also shows that 'low level of awareness has significant frequency i.e., 76, thus, as per the results; there is a high need to educate people towards the DFTs. Second, the overall level of misinformation about DFT is low as the mean value is 8.72 as per table 5 which falls in the category of 'low level of misinformation as per table 4. The third insight is from the demographic and social-economic variables. The results show that education, locality, and age are significantly influencing the level of awareness about DFT. Co-efficient of 1.54 for age signifies that if age is increased by one unit, the level of awareness is
increasing by 1.54 units. Here age was taken in the range of 15 – 30 years, 30 – 40 years, 40 – 60 years, and 60 years and above. Increasing one unit means the person is placed from a lower age group to the next higher age group. Similarly, if the locality is changed from rural to urban the net impact on the awareness score is 2.513 times, and if education is increased by one unit, the awareness score increases by 1.23 times. Similar to the age, education was also taken at a particular level, and increasing one unit of education means, placing the person from one level of education to the next higher level of education. From the findings, it could be interpreted that, the younger population, educated and someone living in the urban area possesses a high level of awareness. Table 9 provides us with the estimated Regression equation which is given by,

$$ Awarenesslevel=2.199+2.513locality+1.54 age+1.23 education $$

# 6. Conclusion

The technological breakthroughs and regulatory reforms of the past decades have brought payment media to the forefront of business, social and political interests [2]. In the era of digitization, a transaction using technology is the best way of being agile and giving better service to customers [1]. The research shows the level of awareness toward DFTs in the North-East Indian state of Nagaland. The study presents a comprehensive analysis of the level of information, level of misinformation, and socio-economic and demographic variables for DFT. The analysis was done using primary data. A structured questionnaire was used to collect the responses from an online survey. The results depicted that individuals were not aware of their appropriate level of awareness if they were to rate their awareness level. It indicates that some people still pretend to be more informed but they are not. Results also suggest that demographic variables such as education, age, and locality have a significant influence on the level of awareness while other variables such as income, gender, and occupation have a very weak influence on the level of awareness. The usage of DFT will raise only when the awareness level of the individuals will improve [47] also with the increase in awareness level trust will build up and attitude towards DTF improves [48]. The authors concentrated on the level of awareness, throughout enhancing research understanding towards DFT. The findings of the present study provide numerous managerial, policy, and theoretical implications.

## 7.1. Practical Implications

India is a developing economy characterized by a middle-class population, an emerging standard of living, a young population with huge opportunities for employment and entrepreneurship, high purchasing power of the
people, and growth in voluminous business transactions. Therefore, the service providers need to increase the
visibility of their innovation or payment service. The visibility could be increased in advertising the products.
Today, a large segment of the population, especially the younger generation follows social media influencers.
The Internet is considered a most valuable tool for sharing data and other relevant information [49], [50]. Thus,
service providers could appoint famous social media influencers to advertise their products. Awareness about
digital instruments for financial transactions results in their actual use for various day-to-day transactions.
Mobile service providers need to engender users' innovativeness to facilitate the usage of mobile payments [51].
Banks should take necessary steps to create awareness among semi-urban and rural people about the advantages
of e-banking/internet banking services available in the banks.

**7.2. Policy Implications**

The awareness campaign about the use of digital instruments may prove to be an advantage for the prime
objective. The government must focus its awareness programs [27]. The government needs to put more effort to
educate people about the benefits of electronic payment systems and improving the security features of the
electronic payment system [52]. The Government should organize financial literacy campaigns from time to
time to make the population aware of the benefits of electronic payment. Efforts must be taken to increase
awareness about digital payments among rural people [22]. The level of education has a major influence on
financial product awareness among youths [53]. A necessary awareness program should be given to the students
because they are the future of India [54]. Antitrust concerns in the market for payment media stem from the lack
of information, improving consumer awareness could be a remedy [55]. There is a need for proper infrastructure
facilities first to make them aware of the technology.

**7.3. Theoretical Implications**

The current study makes a theoretical addition to the field of research researchers who are now working in, or
willing to work in the concerned area. As stated above the research on awareness towards DFTs is limited,
therefore awareness, as a factor, needs to be explored more carefully in future research. Technology has had a
significant impact on the financial sector, and as a result, financial innovations are becoming more
commonplace. Emotional intelligence-related approaches could be used to identify the conscious, preconscious,
and, unconscious levels of awareness. Another scope of research is the investigation of the rural-urban divide. A
comparative study could be done to understand the pattern of awareness in rural as well as urban areas so that
suitable actions could be taken.
## 8. Limitations

Although the authors have made effort to present a comprehensive analysis, the study is not free from limitations. The methodology adopted to measure the awareness suffers from certain limitations. The study has used primary data collected from people living in Nagaland, India, therefore, results might vary in a similar study conducted in other countries. The authors have conducted a cross-sectional study which is another limitation. The study has provided a basic framework for the researchers willing to work in the concerned area. Tracing and revocation of malicious users can be regarded as future work. Future work could explore the causes of the presence of misinformation among digital payment users. Moreover, there is a need for a comprehensive model that could help in increasing the level of awareness. The factors that affect the awareness towards DFTs could be identified for future research.

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