UPSC Prelims 2025 · CSAT (Paper 2) · Q4

Comprehension

Medium · Passage: assumption validity

Read the following passage and answer the item that follows. Your answer to this item should be based on the passage only.

The history of digital payment systems suggests there is a steep learning curve, meaning that, as more transactions are processed, costs fall rapidly because of network effects and learning by doing. A payment platform's technological improvement is path dependent: the more transactions a platform processes, the more likely it is to improve further in the future. The strongest evidence for this is the collapse in the per transaction cost of mobile payments, which became about 80% cheaper over a decade, repeatedly beating early projections. Moving early and expanding gradually gives economies more time to adjust, allowing them to capture the benefits of path dependent digital infrastructure investment without much disruption. A late, more chaotic transition to digital payments is costlier.

With reference to the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

1. Path dependent digital payment investments will eventually most likely benefit growth as well as public finances in a country like India.

2. If other digital infrastructure follows the same pattern as mobile payments, there will most likely be an easier digital transition.

Which of the above assumptions is/are valid?