By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, APRIL 10, 2017: DIGITAL transactions have gathered momentum, giving a fillip to the less cash economy post demonetization thanks to the initiatives taken by the Government. NITI Aayog's two schemes- Lucky Grahak Yojana for consumers and the Digidhan Vyapar Yojana for the merchants have played a catalytic role in making it a mass movement.

A mega draw of lots was held at Rashtrapati Bhawan yesterday to select the winners of the Lucky Grahak Yojana and Digi Dhan Vyapar Yojana. The President, Mr Pranab Mukherjee picked up six lucky winners on the final day of the 100 day scheme. In the consumer category, three mega Prizes of Rs. 1 crore, Rs.50 lakh and Rs. 25 lakh went to the Consumers using Rupay Debit Cards making digital payment of less than Rs.1000. Three mega prizes for merchants worth Rs. 50 lakh, Rs. 25 lakh and Rs. 12 lakh were also declared at the event through the 100th mega draw. The details are as follows-

Consumers Category:

Merchant Category:

The winners will be felicitated by the Prime Minister on April 14th , 2017 at Nagpur, on the occasion of Ambedkar Jayanti.

The two schemes were launched on December 25th , 2016. Under the scheme, daily, weekly and monthly rewards worth Rs. 256 crore has been disbursed to over 16 lakh citizens over the past 100 days for making and accepting small transactions digitally. Modeled after a careful study of best practices undertaken internationally to create an economy that is minimally reliant on cash, the schemes have been executed over a period of 100 days. Combined with Digi Dhan Melas held across India, in 100 cities over a period of 100 days, the initiative has had a transformational impact in enabling the adoption of digital payment methods in all walks of life.  

Over the past 100 days, everyday 15,000 consumers have qualified for total prize money of Rs. 1.5 crore. Additionally, 14,000 weekly winners, both consumers and merchants, have received a total prize money of over Rs. 8.3 crore every week.  Customers and merchants using RuPay Card, BHIM / UPI (Bharat Interface for Money / Unified Payments Interface), USSD based *99# service and Aadhaar Enabled Payment Service (AePS) have been eligible for wining daily and weekly lucky draw prizes.

An analysis of digital payments' users across India reveals that Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Karnataka have emerged as the top five states / UTs with maximum number of winners. An analysis of winners profiles' reveals that they are spread across a range of occupational categories including salaried employees, housewives, farmers and daily wage labourers. While majority of the winners were in the age group of 21 to 30 years, there are also a significant number of winners who are above 60 years of age.

Over 18 million people have downloaded Bharat Interface for Money or the BHIM App, creating a new world record. The UPI based transactions crossed Rs.2000 crore mark in the month of March showing an increase of 20% since January this year. Digital payment methods are now gaining the proportions of a mass movement.