After demonetizing the old currency notes of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000, the next target of Modi government is to encourage digital transactions all over the country and Aadhaar number is going to play a very important role in this process. In an attempt to make India a cashless economy, the government is working towards Aadhaar-enabled transactions which will replace all the card transactions. NITI Aayog is handling this project and very soon, the Indian government will devise a policy which will help in discouraging cash transactions.
In the words of UIDAI’s director general, Ajay Pandey,
“The Aadhaar-enabled transactions are card-less and pin-less. This would enable android phones users to digitally transact using their Aadhaar number and fingerprint/iris authentication.”
As per Ajay Pandey, this project requires an all-round strategy and need of working in many directions at the same time, like getting in discussions with banks, merchants and mobile manufacturers and the government has already started the process.
CEO of NITI Aayog, Amitabh Kant said,
“We are asking mobile manufacturers to see if all mobiles made in India should be inbuilt with iris or thumb identification system to as to help Aadhaar-enabled transactions.”
Amitabh is also part of the chief ministers committee which will be focusing on laying the foundation for the implementation of digital transactions in the next one year. This committee will be meeting for the first time on Thursday.
As per Amitabh, the govt. is also working on a system which will discourage cash transactions and encourage digital transactions. However, Amitabh didn’t disclose the details of the methods which will be employed by the govt.
After imposing the demonetization, the government also said that no extra charge will be taken on the digital transactions till Dec 30; however, the vendors are still charging 2 percent extra on the transaction and this is why, the govt. wants to implement a proper system by the year end.
Aruna Sundarajan, IT secretary, has said that Rs. 100 crore has been kept by the ministry to give incentives to those vendors/merchants who enroll for the digitizing the economy. She said,
“IT department is providing incentive of Rs 100 for every merchant enrolled through over two lakh common service centres across India.”
She further added,
“The ministry will undertake a major outreach communication campaign starting from Monday to ensure that every segment of population is enabled to use one of other mode of digital payment.”
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