Noteworthy epayment push runs out of currency

NOT A ROSY PICTURE Several winners of ₹155cr lottery have already fallen back on cash sans facilities

NEW DELHI: The Central government has given ₹153 crore in cash awards – ranging from ₹1,000 to ₹1 lakh — to about 10 lakh people selected through lottery since December 25 for adopting cashless transactions.

The awardees, the government said, had encouraging tales to tell about how digital payments had changed their lives for the better.

Launched by the National Institution for Transforming India (Niti) Aayog, the lottery picks people daily for an award of ₹1,000 each and a bumper prize of ₹1 lakh every week. Aayog’s chief executive officer Amitabh Kant said the award was encouraging people to go cashless and wanted people to emulate the awardees by adopting digital transaction. Going cashless is the new mantra of the government, though Prime Minister Narendra Modi had initially projected his demonetisation measure – banning higher denomination currency – as a drive against black money.

HT reporters went to meet several of the awardees to learn about their experiences with cashless economy. Though some painted a very rosy picture, not all shared the optimism. Some in fact, have fallen back on cash transactions. (With inputs from Gaurav Saghal in Lucknow, Aditya Iyer in Chennai, Neeraj Mohan in Karnal, Srinivasa Rao Apparasu in Hyderabad, Dipanjan Sinha in Mumbai & Ramesh Babu in Thiruvananthapuram)