Pathbreaker of the Year
A.P. Hota is considered as the father of India’s payment systems technology. With 30+ years of experience in the area of payments system design, development and policy. He is associated with almost all the payment system developments in India since 1986 – starting with introduction of MICR Technology in cheque clearing in 1986 till launch of UPI in 2016 and RuPay credit card in 2017.
During 2005-2008, he headed the Department of Payments & Settlement Systems during which Payment Systems Act was legislated, NEFT was launched, RTGS service was expanded and first vision document on payments and settlement system was released. In the period, 2009-2017, as the first MD & CEO of the national payments utility – National Payments Corporation of India, 3 activities were taken over from Reserve Bank – ATM clearing, Cheque Clearing and ECS.
He introduced many innovative products such as IMPS, RuPay Card, AAdhar Payments Bridge (APB), and UPI amongst others that serve as milestones in India’s digital payments.
In recognition of his unbeatable contribution to the development of the payments ecosystem to usher India into the digital era, Dataquest confered the Pathbreaker of the Year Award 2017 to Abhaya Prasad Hota.