Mumbai, Jan 19 (IANS): There has been a significant growth in adoption as well as deepening of digital payments across the country, showed the Reserve Bank of India - Digital Payments Index (RBI-DPI) on Wednesday.

Accordingly, the index reading for September 2021 rose to 304.06 (index value) from 270.59 in March 2021.

"The RBI-DPI Index continues to demonstrate significant growth in adoption and deepening of digital payments across the country," the RBI said in a statement.

Starting from March 2018, the index stood at 153.47 in March 2019, 173.49 in September 2019.

This improved to 207.84 in March 2020, 217.74 in September 2020 and further increased to 270.59 in March 2021.

Earlier, the RBI had announced construction of the composite index with March 2018 as base to capture the extent of digitisation of payments across the country.

The RBI-DPI comprises of five broad parameters that enable measurement of deepening and penetration of digital payments in the country over different time periods.Notably, these parameters are 'payment enablers', 'payment infrastructure -- demand side factors', 'payment infrastructure -- suppy side factors', 'payment performance' and 'consumer centricity'.Each of these parameters have sub-parameters which, in turn, consist of various measurable indicators.