Lok Sabha Question No. 2176 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2017-03-15
Subject: Infrastructural Development for Digital Literacy
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: NINONG ERING

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (MeitY)

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 2176

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 15.03.2017

## INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT FOR DIGITAL LITERACY

## 2176.        SHRI NINONG ERING:

Will the Minister of Electronics and Information Technology be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has studied infrastructural coverage and digital literacy of people for its ambitious proposal relating to cashless economy;
- (b) if so, the details thereof and if not the reasons thereof;
- (c) whether  the  Government  has  any  plan  to  reduce  problem  of  people  who  are unable  to  do  digital  transaction  due  to  various  reasons  including  low  digital literacy and inadequate infrastructure and if so, the details thereof; and
- (d) whether  the  Government  has  any  time  bound  plan  to  develop  the  required infrastructure and literacy amongst people for cashless transactions being pushed by the Government and if so, the time by which it is likely to be achieved?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI P.P.CHAUDHARY)

(a), (b), (c) and (d):

-  Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) publishes reports on a monthly basis indicating the data relating to telephone subscribers (wireless/wireline) and broadband subscribers. As per TRAI's report dated 17.2.2017, there were a total of 115.17 crore (approx.) telephone subscribers in the country as on 31.12.2016 (wireless - 112.73 crore and wireline - 2.44 crore). Out of these, 59.31% are urban subscribers and 40.69% are rural subscribers. Further, there were 23.61 crore total number of broadband subscribers as on 31.12.2016.
-  As regards digital literacy,  as  per  the  National  Sample  Survey  Office  (NSSO)  report (NSS 71st Round) the proportion of households in the country having computer during 2014  is  around  14%  (only  6%  of  rural  households  and  29%  of  urban  households possessed computer). Among people in the age group of 14-29 years in rural India, only 18% were able to operate a computer. Similarly, in the age group of 30-45 years, the percentage drops further to 4%. In the age group of 46-60 years, the percentage is just more than 1%. This highlights that more than 15 crore rural  households (@ 94% of 16.85  crore  households)  do  not  have  computers  and  a  significant  number  of  these households are likely to be digitally illiterate.
-  In order to promote cashless economy and digital literacy, the Government has taken up several steps as follows:
- -'Digital  Finance  for  Rural  India:  Creating  Awareness  and  Access  through Common Service Centres(CSCs)' under the Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (DISHA) has been initiated in November 2016 for conducting awareness sessions on digital finance options available for rural citizens as well as enabling various

mechanisms  of  digital  financial  services  such  as  Unstructured  Supplementary Service Data(USSD), Unified Payment Interface (UPI), Cards/Point of Sales(PoS),  Aadhaar  Enabled  Payment  System(AEPS),  eWallet  etc.  As  on 10.03.2017, around 2 crore beneficiaries and around  9.93 lakh  Merchants  have been  trained / enabled  under  this   programme.

Further,  sensitization  drives  have  been  carried  out  at  650  Districts  and  5,735 Blocks throughout the country.

- -Government  has  launched  a  new  digital  payment  app  named  'BHIM  -  Bharat Interface for Money'. This is a unified app for UPI through which the users can make  simple,  easy  and  quick  payment  transactions  using  Unified  Payments Interface (UPI).
- -In  addition  to  this,  following  initiatives  have  been  taken  for  creating  awareness amongst citizens:
- o A 24-hour TV channel named 'DigiShala' and a website called 'www.cashlessindia.gov.in', dedicated for facilitating awareness to citizens on  cashless  payment  options  and  their  use,  have  been  launched  on  9th December, 2016.
- o DigiDhan Melas: The DigiDhan Mela brings together various stakeholders of  digital  payment  systems  such  as  banks,  e-wallet  operators,  telecom providers  and  institutions  like  Unique  Identification  Authority  of  India (UIDAI), Common  Services Centres(CSCs) and National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to promote digital payments. The objective is to enable citizens and merchants to undertake real time digital transactions and encourage them to use digital platforms for day to day transactions.
- o A Two day awareness camp 'DigiDhan Mela' was organised on 17 th -18th December, 2016  at  Major  Dhyanchand  National  Stadium,  Delhi,  to  mark the start of the urban campaign to promote digital payments
- o Lucky  Grahak  Yojana/  Digi-Dhan  Vyapar  Yojana : The  Government  has launched the Lucky Grahak Yojana for consumers and Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojana for merchants. These schemes provide daily and weekly awards to citizens and merchants for undertaking digital transactions through Rupay cards, AEPS, UPI Apps and USSD. The objective is to incentivise citizens and merchants to adopt digital payment platforms. As on 10.03.2017, 11.72 lakh consumers and 65,000 merchants have been declared as winner under these schemes.
- o The DigiDhan Melas are being organised in 100 cities till 14th April, 2017. MeitY has launched a website www.digidhan.mygov.in which provides the latest  updates  on  demonetisation  and  the  consumer  and  merchants  can check the rewards under the LuckyGrahak and Digidhan Vypar Yojana. As on 28.02.2017, more than 11.6 lakh citizens / merchants have participated in the DigiDhan Melas.
- -A  project  titled  'On-boarding  of  self-organised  small  and  medium  business/ traders on digital payment initiatives' has been approved for implementation by National  Institute  of  Electronics  and  IT  (NIELIT)  covering  small  and  medium size unorganized/self-organized business/traders.
- -The  Government  has  implemented  two  Schemes  namely  National Digital Literacy Mission (NDLM) and Digital Saksharta Abhiyan(DISHA) under which a total of 82.74 lakh beneficiaries (1 per household) were provided Digital Literacy.
- -The Government has recently approved a scheme titled 'Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital  Saksharta  Abhiyan  (PMGDISHA)'  to  usher  in  digital  literacy  in  rural India by covering 6 crore rural households by 31.03.2019. Under this programme, besides digital literacy, the citizens would also be provided training on undertaking cashless transactions through mobile phone.

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