Centre pushes for cash-free campuses

Public, private institutions to be within digital ambit

Credit Card readers sit next to a sign for Ant Financial Services Group's Alipay, an affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., at the check out counter of a store in Bangkok, Thailand, on Thursday, Sept. 28, 2017. Singapore and Thailand are in discussions about connecting their national digital payment systems to forge an unprecedented regional alliance, as officials step up efforts to curb the use of cash. Photographer: Amanda Mustard/Bloomberg

The Ministry of Human Resource Development aims to make financial transactions completely digital in all higher education institutions.

“The HRD Minister is likely to write to the heads of all institutions to shift completely to digital transactions, preferably from December itself. Our vision is to have no cash transactions on these campuses,” said a senior official, who did not wish to be named.

“The higher education regulators — University Grants Commission (UGC) and All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) — are also being taken on board to help facilitate the transition,” the official said.

The move will bring within the digital ambit all such institutions — public and private — including Central and State universities, IITs, NITs, business schools, etc., Eventually, the Centre aims to fully digitise all campus processes — including admissions, assistance, assessments, result declaration, admission, etc. — with all these processes going on an integrated IT platform.

HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar had in his presentation on higher education at the governors' conference last week, advocated that payments through digital mode be made mandatory in all institutions of higher education. In addition, he said, all in-house transactions, including in-campus canteens, would be made through the BHIM app.

“We have given the work of developing modules for the internal process to an agency. Within six to eight months, we should go completely digital,” IIT Delhi director V. Ramgopal Rao told The Hindu .

The Centre had launched the Vittiya Saksharta Abhiyan (VISAKA), meaning financial literacy campaign, for digital financial literacy early in 2017, enrolling lakhs of volunteers from among students to train families in their neighbourhood to conduct financial transactions digitally through the BHIM app. They were also asked to go to major markets, talk to shopkeepers, vendors and merchants' associations to help shift to digital transactions.

As many as 2000 higher education institutions were also made digital as part of this initiative.