mumbai finance minister nirmala sitharaman on tuesday asked banks to only promote rupay cards and ensure that national payments corporation of india npci becomes a brand india productpitching for increased digital payment modes including adopting unified payment interface upi sitharaman urged banks to discourage nondigital payments as much as possibleaddressing the 73rd annual general meeting of the indian banks association iba she also said that banks should ideally make sure that all accounts are linked with aadhaar number of respective customers by december if it is not complete then the linking should be done by march 31 2021against the backdrop of entities pushing for digital and contactless payment options especially amid the coronavirus pandemic sitharaman said that when rupay is becoming global she would not think of giving any card other than rupay to indiansrupay is a payment card launched by npci an umbrella organisation for operating retail payment and settlement systems in the countryi would not think it is necessary today in india when rupay is becoming global for indians to be given any other cards first than rupay itself so promote rupay cards make sure that the npci becomes a brandindia product which can be promoted elsewhere in the globe and npci therefore should be a priority sitharaman saidthe ministers remarks also come at a time when the government is encouraging activites revolving around aatmanirbhar bharat selfrelianceas much as possible the minister said that banks should discourage nondigital payments and should bank on promotion of digital payment techniques as well as adopt many of the upi unified payments interfacedriven paymentsupi should be a common parlance word in all our banks she saidupi is an instant realtime payment system developed by npci to facilitate interbank transactions through mobile phoneaccording to the minister financial inclusion story is not over and there are many bank accounts that are still not linked with the aadhaar numbers of the account holdersshe said banks should try and ensure that all accounts are linked with aadhaar numbers of respective customers by march 31 2021so ideally by december if not then by march 31 2021 every account should have a pan where applicable and aadhaar sitharaman saidabout amalgamation of banks the minister said she wishes to have each of the amalgamated banks to be as big as the state bank of india sbiwe can have eight more sbis in this country postamalgamation i am sure you are putting your energies in seeing how best you can be not just in size but also in the kind of diversified activities that you can undertake and therefore india is thirsting for large banks she saidfurther sitharaman said banks should understand the pulse on the ground the needs of the customer and be sensitive to their requirements banks should attend the legitimate concerns of the customers she stressedamalgamation should not just remain as an exercise to bring two or three banks together it should now become an organic mechanism to grow and to grow to such scales that the