Bengaluru, Dec 7 (UNI) Buoyed by the demonetisation initiative of the government, ToneTag, a Bangalore based startup, has introduced a sound-based mobile payments system which enables anyone with a standard phone to make cashless payments without having to download an app or to worry about internet connectivity. Mohan Das Pai, vice chairman of Manipal group and a ToneTag investor, who unveiled the open platform, said that any feature phone users will be able to “access the benefits of a cashless digital economy that's being driven by our PM. "I think that ToneTag sound-based technology will enable consumers in small towns to go cashless with minimal digital literacy,” he said adding that it will be a boon for rural India where there is a huge need for accessible and easy to use digital payments to replace cash usage. The company claimed the technology to be a global first – that makes it possible to make cashless, digital payments from cards and wallets using feature phones without internet. “By enabling feature phones to pay, we are removing hardware costs and the steep learning curve many of us had associated with mobile payments,” said Kumar Abhishek CEO, ToneTag. India is home to more than a billion active mobile phone subscriptions with an overall tele-density of around 82 per cent as of May 2016, according to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. Nevertheless, smartphone penetration in India is less than 30 per cent. Most Indians living in tier 2 or tier 3 cities and villages in India have limited access to smartphone based services and mobile internet. Apart from that, according to RBI data, there are 665 million cardholders in India who are served by only 1point 24 million POS terminals that accept card payments, majority of which are found in larger stores in urban India. Though certain technologies such as USSD can be used to transfer funds between feature phones, the solution is not frictionless and there is a steep learning curve to perform these transactions which has affected their adoption in India. The ToneTag technology, the company claims, is frictionless, interoperable and built on an open architecture. A cashless payment transaction can be as simple as making a telephone call. Even small town and rural consumers can become part of the digital payment ecosystem by just dialling a ToneTag toll free number. UNI YSG RJ 2127