In an effort to encourage the habit of making cashless payments for all transactions among people in the city and the state, the Maharashtra government today held a day-long Digi Dhan Mela (digital wealth fair) in the campus of Mumbai University at Fort, South Mumbai.

There were over 50 stalls manned by banks, ewallet, telecom, Aadhar-enabled payment system vendors, merchants’ associations, Aaple Sarkar Seva Kendra (Your Government’s Help Centre) operators, transport companies and others. A variety of products like electronic goods, foodstuffs, textiles, handicrafts, and fashion accessories were also on sale but only digital payments were accepted.

Finance Secretary Vandana Krishna said the objective behind the event was to create awareness about various digital payment systems available and to help users in installing and using them.

Several visitors were also given help to open bank accounts, linking mobile number to their accounts, Aadhar (unique identification) enrolment, Aadhar updates, seeding Aadhar with bank account numbers, and so on.

The fair was held under the aegis of two schemes of Government of India, namely Lucky Grahak Yojana for consumers and Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojana for merchants, which seek to nudge people towards significantly higher usage of digital transactions through the offer of incentives. The Indian government has been constantly striving to promote digital payment methods to encourage people to shift to these payment modes ever since demonetisation of Rs500 (Dh27) and Rs1,000 currency notes on November 8, 2016. The Government of India’s Niti (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog (commission) and Department of Electronics and IT are leading an effort in this direction

In this endeavour, training in digital payments is being imparted to Helpline operators, fair price shop owners, auto-taxi operators from Mumbai, Thane and Raigad. All such providers were given space at the venue where customers and merchants got sensitised or trained about digi operations.

To motivate people further in going cashless, the government has also organised a competition for slogan writing and radio jingles for those below 18 and above 18. Digital prizes/awards will be given to winners of various contests.

source : gulfnews