Electronic modes of payment have come to the rescue of Satyam Kumar, a golgappa vendor near Magadh Mahila College, and few other vendors in the city.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's demonetisation decision has hit hard many people these last seven days, but people like Satyam and betel shop owner Amit Kumar are not among them. They had been charging customers over Paytm wallet, a popular mobile commerce platform for payment, before this move. So, it's business as usual for them.

"In the past few days more than 50 students paid me through their Paytm wallets as they did not have any cash," said Satyam, who started using Paytm three months ago. "The other vendors are having a tough time though because they do not have a Paytm wallet."

Varsha Raj, a second-year political science student at Magadh Mahila College, and one of Satyam's customers, said: "No girl can stop craving for golgappa. So when I was cashless these past few days, I thought why not use Paytm wallet to pay him (Satyam)."

"I started using Paytm because I always had problems giving back customers change for large notes," said Satyam. "When I heard about Paytm from a garment shop that had been using the service for some time, I thought nothing could be better than this to sort out my change problem."

Amit, a 24-year-old betel shop owner near Police Line, who linked himself to Paytm a month-and-a-half ago has another good reason to favour the wallet - the payment goes into recharging his Paytm mobile wallet that he can use for other payments such as cellphone bills and others.

Jai Mangal Deo, psychology faculty at College of Commerce, Arts & Science, was surprised to find his neighbourhood betel shop owner using Paytm. "I checked with the betel shop owner twice because I did not expect him to use Paytm," said Deo. "Now, people like me will be forced to use this technology once it spreads everywhere."

Residents can purchase milk from Sudha booth parlours with Paytm. Hanumant Kumar Jha, owner of a Sudha booth near Police Line, said: "The service needs to popularised. Many people still don't know about Paytm. Only those from well-off families have a Paytm wallet and make payments through it but this facility is a huge source of benefit."

Paytm officials in Patna said they have been spreading their wings since 3,000 small and big businesses took up the service. "We launched this service in Patna in August and since then, we are getting 300 new merchants every day," said Sushil Kumar Rathore, field sales executive of Paytm.