Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday launched digital payment solution e-RUPI, a person and purpose specific cashless digital payment solution, via videoconference. Speaking on the occasion, he said the eRUPI voucher was a symbol of how India was progressing by connecting people’s lives with technology. He expressed happiness that this futuristic reform initiative had come at a time when the country was celebrating the Amrit Mahotsav on the 75th anniversary of Independence.
In addition to the government, he stated, if any organisation wanted to help someone in their treatment, education or for any other work, then they would be able to give an eRUPI voucher instead of cash. This would ensure that the money given by him was used for the work for which the amount had been given.
The Prime Minister observed, “eRUPI will ensure that the money is being used for the purpose for which any help or any benefit is being provided’’. There was a time when technology was considered a domain of the rich people and there was no scope for technology in a poor country like India. “Today we are seeing technology as a tool to help the poor, a tool for their progress,’’ he pointed out.
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New opportunities
Mr. Modi asserted how technology was bringing in transparency and integrity in transactions and creating new opportunities and making them available to the poor.
For reaching today’s unique product, the foundation was prepared over the years by creating the JAM system, which connected mobile and Aadhaar. “Benefits of JAM took some time to be visible to people and we saw how we could help the needy during the lockdown period while other countries were struggling to help their people,’’ he stressed.
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More than ₹17.50 lakh crore had been transferred directly to the accounts of people via the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT). “More than 3,000 schemes are using DBT and 90 crore Indians are being benefited in some way or the other through in areas like LPG, ration, medical treatment, scholarship, pension and wage disbursal. Also ₹1,35,000 crore had been directly transferred to farmers under the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi. A sum of ₹85,000 crore for government purchase of wheat was also disbursed in this manner. The biggest benefit of this all was that ₹1,78,000 crore was prevented from going to the wrong hands,” he remarked.
Record UPI transactions
The development of digital transactions had empowered the poor and deprived, small businesses, farmers and tribal population. This could be felt in the record 300 crore UPI transactions in July, amounting to ₹6 lakh crore, he highlighted.
India was proving to the world that “we are second to none in adopting technology and adapting to it” through innovations and use of technology in service delivery. The country had the ability to give global leadership alongside major countries of the world, he added.