: Global payments major Visa on Wednesday responded to the Indian government's push for adoption of RuPay cards, saying presence of all kinds of players fosters innovation and offers customers a choice.

A day after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman asked banks to "only promote" RuPay cards, Visa's country manager for India and South Asia T R Ramachandran said that digital payments penetration is very low in India at only 18 per cent of overall personal consumption expenditure.

"We all have our roles to play," Ramachandran, whose company along with peer Mastercard competes with the Rupay alternative offered by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), said.

Talking to reporters, he said that India is a large country and unlike the western countries, where it is a zero-sum game, where somebody has to lose for somebody to win.

"Given the statistics... That under 18 per cent of private consumption expenditure is digitised, I would argue it takes all kinds of players, domestic, international etc because that fosters innovation, that fosters customer choice," he said.

Addressing the annual general meeting of the Indian Banks Association on Tuesday, Sitharaman had asked lenders to "only promote" Rupay cards to their customers.

"RuPay card will have to be the only card you promote. Whoever needs a card, RuPay will be the only card you would promote," she had said in the remarks which come at a time when self-reliance has become a key policy goal for India.