Statement 1 is Correct: The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) was established to facilitate retail payments and promote financial inclusion in India. They achieve this by
1. Developing and deploying innovative payment infrastructure like RuPay cards, UPI, etc.
2. Enabling participation of a wider range of players in the payments system, including non-bank entities.
3. Setting standards and guidelines to ensure secure and efficient electronic payments. Statement 2 is Correct: RuPay is a domestic debit and credit card payment network launched by NPCI in India. It provides an alternative to international card networks like Visa and Mastercard. This domestic network can potentially lower transaction costs for merchants and banks compared to international schemes. Therefore, both statement 1 and statement 2 are correct.
Hence, option C is the correct answer.