Govt. to organise DigiDhan Melas in 100 cities

To make digital payments and a less cash society a mass movement in India, the DigiDhan Mela will take place in 100 cities across the country over the next 100 days until March.

In order to incentivize Digital Payments, the Government of India, today, kick-started the Lucky Grahak Yojana and Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojana awards at the Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi. A total of 15,000 winners were selected under 4 broad categories (USSD, UPI, AEPS and RuPay) from 8 crore digital transactions that took place between 9th November 2016 to 21st December 2016. 

The award ceremony was attended by Arun Jaitley, union minister of finance and corporate affairs, government of India and Ravi Shankar Prasad, union minister of electronics & information technology and law & justice, launched the awards today in the presence of PP Chaudhary, union minister of state for electronics & information technology and law & justice, Arvind Panagariya, vice chairman, Niti Aayog, Amitabh Kant, CEO, Niti Aayog,  Aruna Sundararajan, secretary, ministry of electronics and information technology, MM Kutty, chief secretary, Delhi, Naresh Kumar, president, NDMC and AP Hota, CEO, NPCI along with India cricketer Gautam Gambhir and eminent athlete and silver medalist at the Paralympics 2016, Deepa Malik. 

NPCI announced the winners of today’s lucky draw will receive a message from their banks and the reward money will be credited into their bank accounts over the next 24 hours. 

In his opening remarks, Amitabh Kant, CEO, Niti Aayzg, said, “Demonetisation has been one of the boldest steps taken by the government of India to fight corruption. This will make economic transactions more accountable. I am happy to share that the volume of digital transactions in India has gone up by 300 – 350 per cent since November 9th, 2016. This is an indicator of citizens’ enthusiasm in embracing digital payment options.” 

Speaking on the occasion, Arun Jaitley, said, “The central government’s annual budget is around 20 lakh crore and 16 lakh crore has been this years’ income. Half of this came from income tax and the remaining from other indirect taxes. To meet the deficit, the government must borrow and this leaves the country and the next generation in debt. We must ensure a strategic framework that works as a catalyst to India’s economic growth and a safe digitized economy.” 

“India has huge potential to transform the economy in to a digital one. Of 125 crore people, 75 crore use credit and debit cards. Of these, 45 crore are active users. With incentive schemes like Lucky Grahak Yojana and DigiDhan Vyapar Yojana, the Digital India movement will certainly strengthen the country’s economic backbone.” 

Ravi Shankar Prasad, said, “Digital India, Skill India, Start-Up India etc are all part of the transformative process, that the Prime Minister has embarked upon. Already 109 crore Indians are registered with the Aadhaar, 50 crore people have access to internet and 35 crore people are smartphones users. We are now working on a mission to provide training to over 1 crore rural citizens, through 2 lakh Common Service Centres. Over the last 10 days, we have been able to provide training to 76,99,174 citizens and 2,20,741 merchants and traders.” 

“Through digital transactions, we have been able to save around Rs 36,000 crore in various projects that were earlier unaccounted for. The government’s motto is to remain digitally connected as well as remain physically connected. We will reach out to every nook and corner of the country, and continue this lucky draw for next 100 days, wherein every day 15000 people will win awards and will culminate with a mega draw on 14th April 2017,” added Shri Ravi Shakar Prasad.  

During the event, MM Kutty, chief secretary, Delhi and Naresh Kumar, president, NDMC were felicitated for turning NDMC into digital. To inspire more and more citizens to adopt digital payment methods, cricketer Gautam Gambhir paid his electricity bill online, without cash, at the event. 
Winners of the Lucky Grahak Yojana and the Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojana will be selected on a daily and weekly basis respectively, leading up to a mega draw on 14th April 2017, where after the scheme shall be reviewed for further implementation.