Lok Sabha Question No. 4776 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-03-29
Subject: Digital Transactions in Tribal and Rural Areas
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Gyaneshwar Patil

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4776

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 29.03.2023

## DIGITAL TRANSACTIONS IN TRIBAL AND RURAL AREAS

## 4776:     SHRI GYANESHWAR PATIL:

Will the Minister of ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Government  is  making  efforts  to  promote  transactions  through  digital platforms in the tribal and the rural areas of the State of Madhya Pradesh and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) whether any specific awareness program for the tribal areas of Madhya Pradesh has been designed to facilitate the people of the tribal region in promoting digital payment methods and if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether  the  Government  has  plan  to  integrate  the  public  facilities  in  the  State  of Madhya Pradesh and specially in parliamentary constituency of Khandwa through the digital payment on the Panchayat level; and
- (d) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI RAJEEV CHANDRASEKHAR)

- (a) and  (b):  Yes,  Sir.  Government  is  making  efforts  to  promote  transactions  across  the country including in the tribal and the rural areas of the State of Madhya Pradesh.  Further, promotion of digital payments ecosystem is an essential aspect of Digital India programme and  is  aimed  at  digitizing  the  financial  sector  and  economy  with  consequent  benefits  of efficiency,  transparency  and  quality.  Over  the  years,  digital  payment  transactions  have grown  multifold  from  2071  crore  in  FY  2017-18  to  8,840  crore  in  FY  2021-22.  During current  financial  year  ie  FY  2022-23,  the  total  number  of  12,735  crore  digital  payment transactions have been reported till 23 rd March, 2023*. Bharat Interface for Money-Unified Payments Interface (BHIM-UPI) has emerged as the preferred payment mode of the citizens and has achieved a record of 753.48 crore digital payment transactions with the value of Rs 12.36 lakh crore during February 2023. The total number of digital payments undertaken during the last three years and current year is as under:

| Financial year (FY)                  | Total number of digital transactions (in crore) #   |
|--------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------|
| FY 2019-20                           | 4,572                                               |
| FY 2020-21                           | 5,554                                               |
| FY 2021-22                           | 8,840                                               |
| FY 2022-23 *(till 23 rd March, 2023) | 12,735                                              |

# Note: Digital Payments modes considered: BHIM-UPI, IMPS, NACH, AePS, and NETC, Debit cards, Credit cards, NEFT, RTGS, PPI and others.

* Provisional data.

Source: Reserve Bank of India (RBI), National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) & Banks

The following major steps have been taken for promotion of Digital Payments by Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY):

- i. The incentive scheme for promotion of RuPay Debit cards and low-value BHIM-UPI transactions  (P2M)  has  been  initiated  by  MeitY  to  give  a  further  boost  to  digital transactions  in  the  country.  This  scheme  facilitates  Banks  in  building  robust  digital payment ecosystem, promoting RuPay Debit card and BHIM-UPI digital transactions, across  all  sectors  and  segments  of  the  population  and  further  deepening  of  digital payments in the country.
- ii. Various other Incentive/cashback schemes were launched by MeitY for changing the customer/merchant behaviour for faster adoption of digital payments. Some of them were  BHIM  Cashback  schemes  for  Individuals  &  Merchants,  BHIM  Aadhaar Merchant  Incentive  Scheme,  BHIM-UPI  Merchant  On-boarding  Scheme  Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) Reimbursement scheme.
- iii. MeitY issued advisories to Central Ministries/Departments and States/UTs to improve payments acceptance infrastructure and thereby enable the citizens to pay by a variety of modes such as Internet banking, mobile banking, and mobile applications etc.
- iv. MeitY launched the scheme titled 'Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA)' to usher in digital literacy in rural India.
- v. MeitY  advised  all  Banks  and  Payment  Service  Providers  to  undertake  awareness campaigns  for  promotion  of  secure  payment  practices  and  generate  information security awareness. Materials are disseminated through portals'www.infosecawareness.in', www.cyberswachhtakendra.gov.in .
- vi. Various promotion and awareness campaigns, through traditional means of publicity as  well  as  emergent  means  such  as  social  media  platforms,  have  been  initiated  to encourage citizens to use digital payments.
- vii. In  order  to  ensure  safety  and  security  of  digital  payments,  various  steps  have  been taken by the Government and Reserve Bank of India(RBI)
- viii. Further,  Department  of  Financial  Services,  GOI  has  also  advised  banks  to  conduct special  camps  through  FLCs (Financial  Literacy  Centres) (2 camps per  month on  ' Going Digital' through UPI and *99#(USSD) ( Unstructured Supplementary Service Data)  including  tailored  camps  for  different  target  groups  viz.  farmers,  Micro  and Small entrepreneurs, school children, Self Help Groups and Senior Citizens.
- ix. Also, Rural branches of banks are required to conduct one camp per month covering all the messages that are part of Financial Awareness Messages (FAME) booklet and the two digital platforms UPI and USSD.
- x. A strong network of about 6.09 lakh BCs (Banking Correspondents), representing the last mile connect in the banking services delivery system is also creating awareness while  facilitating  transactions  in  the  rural  areas,  because  of  their  familiarity  with Local/Rural population.

(c) and (d): MeitY has integrated online payment services (PayGov) with various State level public  digital  platforms  that  provide  G2C/  G2B  (Government  to  citizen)/(Government  to Business)services covering the whole State of Madhya  Pradesh including  Khandwa constituency such as MP Online, MPPKVVCL (MP Poorv Kshetra Vidyut Vitaran Company Ltd), MP State Mining Corporation Limited, RERA(Real Estate Regulatory Authority) , MP Nurses  Registration  Council,  MPSEDC  (M.P.  State  Electronics  Development  Corp.  Ltd), Federation  and  Chamber  of  Commerce  and  Industry,  Directorate  of  Medical  Education, Environmental  Planning  &  Coordination,  Dewas  Municipal  Corporation,  Expo  Overseas Entrepreneurs  association,  CPCT(Computer  Proficiency  Certification  Test)  and  Madhya Pradesh Road Development Corporation.

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