MUMBAI: The Aadhaar Enabled Payments System (AEPS) could be at the forefront of increasing financial inclusion in rural India, taking a cue from the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) that is driving small-value, peer-to-peer settlements over the smartphone platform.Data shared by the National Payments Corporation of India, the nodal agency for digital payments in India, show that AEPS has jumped more than 250% to Rs 8,400 crore in value terms for the first six months of FY18. Last financial year, it had clocked Rs 2,282 crore. AEPS transactions have reached a volume of 41.3 million by the end of September, rising 150% against 16.3 million reported last year.Bankers say that with direct benefit transfer getting credited into bank accounts of customers and faster propagation of Aadhaar seeding, there is wider adoption of AEPS-enabled payments in the country, especially in semi-urban and rural areas.“AEPS is an ideal replacement for usage of debit card. Now with Aadhaar seeding with bank accounts going up and government benefits coming directly, rural customers are adopting this facility very fast,” said Sujatha Mohan, head of digital and new initiatives at RBL Bank.The private lender has deployed about 8,000 terminals and has reported about 3.6 million financial and non-financial transactions on its micro ATM network. Also, bankers say that more than 70% of these transactions could be sourced from rural and semi-urban India.Another major deployer of micro-ATMs for AEPS transactions is IDFC Bank. It has already installed 10,000 terminals as well with 95% of them being in hitherto unbanked regions. MicroATMs are small terminals that are capable of doing balance enquiry, cash deposit and cash withdrawal among a few other payment features. Instead of full-fledged ATMs, banks find these terminals a cheaper alternative as they can be installed at a business correspondent point or a popular merchant location in a village without a bank branch or an ATM.Further highlighting the fact that AEPS volumes are being mainly generated in eastern India, Mohan said that states such as Jharkhand, West Bengal and Bihar are reporting the highest number of transactions. “The eastern corridor is typically the region which receives a huge chunk of remittance coming in from the rest of the country, we are seeing the same region adopt AEPS as well,” said Mohan. “This could be with customers drawing money from the BC branches with Aadhaar as the channel."Oxigen, which is one of the major deployers of these micro ATMs for AEPS transactions, is gearing up to almost double its terminals over the next six months.“We have 15,000 terminals deployed now and we want to scale up to 25,000 within the next six months,” said Sunil Kulkarni, joint managing director at Oxigen Services, which works with State Bank of India and RBL Bank for deploying its terminals.