8216;Young affluent to drive m-commerce8217;

The survey was topped by Singapore.

The country8217;s performance was driven by good score in the infrastructure component,financial services and consumer readiness,but scored low in overall environment.

8220;The results of the index for India are encouraging. The mobile payment industry will be largely driven by the young population and India8217;s demographic dividend offers a great prospect,8221; MasterCard Worldwide Division President South

Asia T V Seshadri said.

The index was based on three kinds of mobile payments person to person,mobile web commerce and mobile contact less payments at the point of sale.

The study noted that country8217;s annual investment in telecom sector of nearly USD 70 billion and a high number of mobile phone subscriptions gave it a leading spot in infrastructure 8212; the second best on the index.

Globally,Singapore bagged the first spot with a score of 45.6 followed by Canada and US with a score of 42 and 41.5,respectively.

Interestingly,nine of the 10 markets with the highest consumer scores are in the Asia Pacific,Middle East and Africa regions.

Apart from India,the young affluent consumers in Australia showed interest to engage in mobile payments as they recognise the value of using mobile payments instead of cash or payment cards,it said.

The survey said majorly,male population are more engaged in mobile payments,whereas women showed higher levels of interest in countries such as China,Egypt and the Philippines.

8220;Technology infrastructure,a responsive regulatory environment and a robust economy are table stakes for the advancement,8221; MasterCard Worldwide Vice president Global Insights Theodore Iacobuzio said.

He added that consumer readiness and industry integration are necessary to promote mobile payments.