Rs 60.90 cr awarded at Digi-Dhan Melas

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 19

After holding 24 Digi-Dhan Melas across the country, NITI Aayog has so far disbursed Rs 60.90 crore to 3.81 lakh consumers and 21,000 merchants, as part of its twin scheme — Lucky Grahak Yojana and Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojana.

Claiming that the digital transaction drive got a major boost after demonetisation, a statement by NITI Aayog said, “More than 3.81 lakh consumers and 21,000 merchants won prizes worth Rs 60.90 crore at 24 Digi-Dhan Melas organised across the country.”

Giving details about the twin-scheme, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Common Service Centres have trained 1.94 crore citizens and 5.93 lakh merchants so far for carrying out transactions through digital payment systems.

As the twin-schemes were implemented on daily and weekly basis, the list of winners included small farmers, anganwadi workers, housewives and labourers, it added.

Data analytics provided by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has highlighted a positive response among the people to adopt digital payments. Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka have emerged as the top-five states with maximum number of winners. Active participation has been seen among men and women while most of the winners were in the age group of 21-30 years.

The two schemes were launched on December 25, 2016 and shall remain open till April 14, 2017. The schemes are aimed at incentivising the consumers and the merchants to promote digital payments. As many as 15,000 daily winners vie for total prize money of Rs 1.5 crore at the rate of Rs 1,000 per person. Besides, over 14,000 winners qualify for weekly draws with the total prize money of over Rs 8.3 crore per week.