Union Minister for Law and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad said that Aadhaar-enabled payment system would be introduced on a large scale in the country in the future.

Though Aadhaar -enabled payment systems have been introduced in a small scale in the country, it would cover the entire mass in the future.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of DigiDhan Mela organised by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and Niti Ayog here on Wednesday, he said once the Aadhaar -enabled payment is introduced every shopkeeper would be able to make Aadhaar-enabled payments. Under the system, merchants with simple android phones with a USB-based fingerprint capture device, can go for cashless transaction.

The merchant is required to have a bank account with an Aadhaar number seeded to it. The consumers only need a bank account with their Aadhaar number seeded. They can pay the shopkeeper by providing fingerprint in the biometric device attached to the mobile phone.

Stating that demonetisation is part of a series of decisions taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a clean transparent society, Prasad said it has arrested terrorism, Maoist movement, Hawala trade, supari killing and human trafficking in the country.

Digital payment and Digital India helps the country to become digitally empowered. There are 25 crore Jan Dhan accounts in the country. Subsidies are credited to the account holders. As a result, the country has saved Rs 36,000 crore in the last three years. The digital payment helps in making India an honest and accountable country.

The minister said the government has been giving rewards to promote cashless digital payment. The prize money goes upto Rs 1 crore. Daily, 15,000 people would be lucky prize based on a lucky draw. The Central government has been spending Rs 340 crore for this digital payment lucky draw. Digital India has been bringing about a revolutionary transformation in India, making an inclusive development a possibility, he added.

Cashless transaction
MP Nalin Kumar Kateel said that cashless transaction has been introduced in remote Balpa village of Sullia taluk. With the help of district administration and banks, efforts would be made to introduce cashless transaction in entire Dakshina Kannada district by March 31.

Minister of State for Drinking water and Sanitation Ramesh Jigajinagi said the citizens and merchants should support for the success of demonetisation and introduction of digital transaction in the country. The cashless transaction will help in arresting corruption in the country.

A total of 36 stalls were put by various nationalised banks, private banks, KMF, Indian post, cellphone companies to create awareness on digital payment system.

The participants were explained various options available for digital payments to the visitors and were also assisted in downloading and installing various mobile apps for digital payments.

The lucky draw for using the digital transactions in across the country was carried out on the occasion. Accordingly, 11 persons who had carried out the digital transaction through USSD, 222 persons with UPI, 410 persons with AEPs and 14,357 with Rupay card payments won the lucky grahak prizes.

Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad presented laptops to five village level entrepreneurs of CSC in Karnataka for their commendable job in creating awareness about digital payment. They are Uma Farook (Hassan), Ravi Shankar (Bidar), Kailash (Davangere), Shivu (Dharwad) and Garima (Bengaluru Urban).
DH News Service