All Aboard The Digital Grid

Context: A digital and financial revolution is proving to be a godsend in Covid times.

Digital and financial revolution in India amid pandemic:

• Highest digital payments: India overtook China to register the highest number of countrywide digital payments.
  • Real-time transactions crossed 25 billion, much higher than China’s 15 billion in 2020, as reported in the annual research report of ACI Worldwide.
  • Digital payments in India are set to account for 71.7% of all payments by volume by the year 2025.
• Ease of access to financial services:
  • By giving unique digital identity Aadhaar to 124 crore people and by building the Jan-Dhan- Aadhar-Mobile (JAM) and Universal Payment Interface (UPI) platform, the government has been creating the ground for greater financial inclusion.
  • The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana has added 42.4 crore bank accounts in the past seven years, of which 28 crores are owned by rural Indians.
  • The JAM trinity has helped people know their account status, receive scholarships and fellowships, get fertiliser and LPG subsidy, disability pensions and farm income support — directly into their accounts.
  • The trinity also helped eliminate middle-men, frauds, and leakages due to corruption.
  • PM Garib Kalyan package is a barometer of the success of the government’s financial inclusion and digitisation efforts.
    • By December 2020, over 42 crore poor people had received Rs 68,903 crore of financial assistance under the package.

Conclusion:

• The world’s largest digital and financial inclusion programme of its kind has helped transform the lives of millions of Indians.
• This is also critical to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals to which India remains committed, especially when it comes to fighting poverty, reducing gender inequalities and ushering in greater social equity, among others.