A group of senior ministers of the Modi government has identified schools, common service centres (CSCs), health centres, petrol pumps, co-operative societies and rural development outlets to push cashless transactions.
“They (Ministers) discussed what methodology can be adopted for creating a cashless society on a priority basis. They decided that cashless transactions should be given priority over cash transactions in some of the schools, petrol pumps, health centres and Post Offices,” a government official told BusinessLine .
The ministers included Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of Electronics and Information Technology and Law & Justice; Dharmendra Pradhan, Oil and Gas Minister; JP Nadda, Health Minister; Prakash Javadekar, HRD Minister; Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister of Mines; and Radha Mohan Singh, Agriculture Minister.
The official said unified payments interface (UPI) can be used in these centres through a centralised platform. In order to scale up the programme, the Centre is involving State governments and authorities to train for ‘digital societies’.
“Just like we have online mechanisms for education (through online courses) and health (online lab reports, appointments, etc), the government is now campaigning for the cashless society on a priority basis,” the official said.
Training sessionsFor that, the government is also holding training sessions at different Ministries. To start with, the Prime Minister’s Office, the Law & Justice Ministry, and the NITI Aayog had a training session on Monday, and others will follow from Tuesday.
Officers including Principal Secretary Nripendra Misra, and Additional Principal Secretary PK Mishra, conducted a workshop for staff of the PMO, to train and initiate them in the process of mobile banking, and conducting daily transactions through mobile applications such as UPI and e-wallets, a government statement said.
Officials from State Bank of India and MyGov were also present on the occasion, it said.
“Today a workshop on cashless digital payments for all officers & staff of Law & Justice Ministry was held. I urged everyone to not only use digital payment system but also encourage & train others in using the same,” Ravi Shankar Prasad tweeted.