Data: 49% of Those Surveyed for NSO’s CMS:T Survey Said They Can Perform Online Banking Transactions; 80% of Them Only Through UPI
Between January and March 2025, the NSO carried out a new kind of survey called the Comprehensive Modular Survey: Telecom (CMS:T) as part of the 80th round of the NSS. The focus of this survey was solely on the telecom sector, with the addition of a few more indicators. Survey data reveals that at the all-India level, 49% of individuals reported they could perform online banking transactions. However, more than 80% of them reported being able to do so using only UPI.
Earlier this year, between January and March 2025, the National Statistics Office (NSO) carried out a new kind of survey called the Comprehensive Modular Survey: Telecom (CMS:T) as part of the 80th round of the National Sample Survey (NSS). Unlike the usual long and detailed surveys, this one was short and focused—part of NSO’s plan to run quicker surveys that zoom in on specific topics. It builds on the broader Comprehensive Annual Modular Survey (CAMS) that was conducted between July 2022 and June 2023, but this time, the focus was solely on the telecom sector, with the addition of a few more indicators.
This survey was undertaken in response to requests from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). It collected data on various aspects of mobile and internet usage at both the household and individual levels. Additionally, information on selected ICT skills was also captured.
It is important to note that the survey was not designed for state-level estimates; however, the same has been presented in this report based on available sample observations. In today’s story, we take a look at some of the key findings from this important survey and what they tell us about digital life in India.
The data for this story is sourced through Dataful, where one can find the clean and standardised datasets on a wide variety of topics, including the CAMS and CMS:T as well.
Survey size
The survey covered a wide and diverse sample across the country, reaching 4,382 locations—called first-stage units—which included 2,395 villages in rural areas and 1,987 urban blocks in cities and towns. In total, data was collected from 34,950 households, split between 19,071 in rural India and 15,879 in urban areas. Altogether, the survey gathered information from 1,42,065 individuals—with a larger share, 82,573, from rural areas, and 59,492 from urban parts of the country. The survey was conducted between January to March 2025.
Almost 50% of people above 15 years are able to perform online banking transactions
The survey looked into how many people aged 15 and above are able to carry out online banking transactions using devices like smartphones or computers. At the all-India level, 49% of individuals reported they could perform online banking transactions. However, the numbers reveal a clear gender and regional gap.
Men are well ahead, with 61% saying they can perform online banking, compared to just 37% of women. The urban-rural divide is equally stark, with 62% of urban residents reporting this ability, while only 40% in rural areas could say the same. When we break it down further, 73% of urban men can perform online banking, compared to 54% of rural men. Among women, 51% in urban areas are comfortable with online banking, but that figure drops to just 30% in rural areas.
When compared with the earlier Comprehensive Annual Modular Survey (CAMS), the latest numbers from CMS:T show a clear improvement, especially among rural populations and women. Among rural men, the ability to perform online banking transactions jumped from 39% in CAMS to 54% in CMS:T, while Urban men also saw a significant rise, from 61% to 73%.
Rural women, who previously had just 17% reporting this ability, have now climbed to 30%—a notable improvement, though still far behind their urban counterparts. Among urban women, the proportion rose from 38% to 51%, crossing the halfway mark for the first time.
UPI remains the dominant mode of transaction, while others lag very behind
While nearly half of the people surveyed said they could carry out online banking transactions, how they do it varies greatly. A deeper look reveals that this ability is heavily skewed toward a single mode, UPI. The use of other digital banking options, like net banking or mobile banking apps, remains extremely limited.
At the all-India level, more than 80% of those who said they can perform online banking transactions reported being able to do so using only UPI. Interestingly, this trend is even stronger in rural areas, where 87% rely exclusively on UPI, compared to 75% in urban areas.
In sharp contrast, the use of any mode other than UPI—such as traditional net banking or other digital channels—is almost negligible. Just 0.6% of the surveyed individuals reported being able to use these alternatives, with urban areas at 0.7% and rural areas at only 0.4%.
Meanwhile, the share of people who can navigate both UPI and other forms like Net banking is still quite limited. Fewer than 1 in 5 surveyed individuals fall into this more digitally fluent group, with urban India at 25% and rural India at just 13%.
These figures highlight a clear pattern: while UPI has become the dominant entry point for digital banking in India, especially in rural areas, broader digital financial literacy around other platforms remains low and uneven.
Cyber-Crimes on a rise, but less than 20% know how to report
The digital age has brought immense convenience, but it has also opened the door to new threats—cyber crimes being one of the most pressing. In our earlier stories, we have seen that there has been a steady rise in cyber crime cases in recent years. However, the ability and, perhaps more importantly, the awareness to report such crimes remains worryingly low.
The CMS:T survey shines a light on this gap. At the national level, only 18% of people aged 15 and above said they knew how to file a complaint about cyber crime or report cyber fraud on the official cyber crime reporting portal. The gap between rural and urban areas is striking, with just 13% in rural India reporting this ability, compared to 28% in urban areas. Gender-wise, the divide is equally sharp. Only 13% of women said they knew how to report cyber fraud, while 23% of men reported having this ability.
But it’s when we look at gender and region together that the disparities become even more stark. In rural India, only 17% of men and 8.3% of women said they knew how to report cybercrimes. In urban areas, those numbers are significantly higher—34% for men and 21.5% for women.