Conference on Digital & Cashless Economy | 27 Jul 2019
Recently, the Conference on Digital & Cashless Economy was held in New Delhi with the theme of ‘The Future of India’s Digital Payments’.
- The west transitioned from Paper currency to Plastic card currency. India will transition from Paper currency to Digital currency, much faster and with more volume anywhere in the world. In this direction government has taken various initiatives:
- To ensure digital literacy in every house-hold, government has initiated the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA) to make 60 million adults digitally literate in rural India of which more than 10 million people have already been trained.
Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyaan
- Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyaan is the scheme to make six crore persons in rural areas, across States/UTs, digitally literate, reaching to around 40% of rural households by covering one member from every eligible household till 31st March, 2019.
- The Scheme aims to bridge the digital divide, specifically targeting the rural population including the marginalised sections of society like Scheduled Castes (SC) / Scheduled Tribes (ST), Minorities, Below Poverty Line (BPL), women and differently-abled persons and minorities.
- The Reserve Bank of India has released the ‘Payment And Settlement Systems In India: Vision – 2019-2021 which aims to transform India into a cash-lite economy and ensure that the country has a ‘state-of-the-art’ payment and settlement systems that are safe and secure.
- The launch of Digital India and Digital Payments is to ensure more people can benefit from technology, especially in rural areas.
- Government has ensured that the advantages of technology are not restricted to a select few but are there for all sections of society.
- By applying Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) and Aadhaar-linked Payments (ALP), the government has reduced delays in the payment of wages, curbed corruption and plugged up any leakages in the system.
- With these disruptive transformations, comes immense challenges of integrity and security of digital payment systems which is where there is a need to partner together, as government and industry.