Digi-dhan Vyapar Yojana
High value bank notes demonetized – Income Tax Department raids increased – cashless digital transactions promoted – black money and corruption takes a hit! Doesn’t that sound amazing? Doesn’t that sound magical? That’s precisely what is happening right now in India as we are writing this article. But hold on! The most important question, ‘is India ready for switching from cash economy to cashless economy?’ ‘Is India ready to embrace digital transactions?’
These are daunting questions and the correct way to answer them is to ask one question – ‘if you are given proper incentives, will you not try to do something that you never did before?’
This is precisely the same question that NITI Aayog thought of. NITI Aayog, which is the think tank of the Union Government replaced the previously existing and defunct Planning Commission when the current BJP-led government took control of India.
After a bold and unexpected move of demonetizing high value currency notes, the Union Government has been pushing Indian citizens to embrace digital transactions. The primary reason for that push was to fight black money. The question is, ‘exactly how will digital transaction help in fighting black money?’ The answer is way too simple! Digital transactions enable the government to keep track of every single dime that circulates in the economy and hence, hoarding cash or keeping money unaccounted is quite literally impossible. This effectively kills black money and corruption as the issue of improper tax collection is also taken care of.
Now, to help Indians embrace cashless economy and digital transactions, the Government of India has come up with something really unexpected – a LOTTERY!
NITI Aayog announces lottery – incentives for embracing digital transactions
NITI Aayog announced that people who will use digital transactions will become eligible for daily and weekly prizes and of course, there will be mega awards. These monetary awards will be for both merchants and consumers.
These awards that NITI Aayog announced are put under two different schemes. They are:
Lucky Grahak Yojana (LGY).
Digi-dhan Vyapar Yojana (DDV)
As the names suggest, LGY is designed for consumers while the merchants will be covered under the ‘DDV Yojana’. This announcement was made by Amitabh Kant – the CEO of NITI Aayog.
Highlights of the two schemes in tabular format
In case you are wondering exactly what has been announced by NITI Aayog, here are the highlights of the two schemes is clear tabular format:
Features LGY DDV
Applicable for Consumers Merchants
Transactions worth INR 50 to INR 3,000 INR 50 to INR 3,000
Focus groups Poor people and middle class Small businesses
Implementing body NPCI or National Payments Corporation of India NPCI or National Payments Corporation of India
Scheme’s first draw date December 25, 2016 December 25, 2016
Scheme’s mega draw date April 14, 2017 – Birthday of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar April 14, 2017 – Birthday of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar
Total cost to be incurred INR 340 Crores
NITI Aayog or National Institute for Transforming India Aayog termed these two schemes as Christmas gift for all Indians.
Highlights of weekly and daily prizes
PLEASE NOTE:DAILY PRIZES ARE AVAILABLE ONLY AND ONLY UNDER THE LGY. THIS MEANS THAT DAILY PRIZES WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE FOR MERCHANTS.
LGY in tabular format
Scheme Features Daily Prize Weekly Prize
Number of beneficiaries 15,000 consumers daily 7,000 consumers daily
Prize amount INR 1,000 cashback every day to 15,000 consumers every day. INR 1 lakh, INR 10,000, INR 5,000 to 7,000 consumers per week.
First draw date Christmas (December, 25) Christmas (December, 25)
Scheme end date Babasaheb Ambedkar Jayanthi – April 14, 2017 Babasaheb Ambedkar Jayanthi – April 14, 2017
DHV Yojana
Scheme Features Weekly Prize
Number of beneficiaries 7,000 merchants
Prize amount INR 50,000, INR 5,000 and INR 2,500 for 7,000 merchants per week.
First draw date Christmas (December, 25)
Scheme end date Babasaheb Ambedkar Jayanthi – April 14, 2017
Highlights of mega awards
Both the schemes – are offering a mega draw that will take place on April 14, 2017. The highlights of the mega draw are given below:
LGY Awards
Scheme Features Weekly Prize
Number of Prizes 3
First prize amount INR 1 crore
Second prize amount INR 50 lakhs
Third prize amount INR 25 lakhs
Draw method Random selection using transaction IDs
DDV Yojana Awards
Scheme Features Weekly Prize
Number of Prizes 3
First prize amount INR 50 lakhs
Second prize amount INR 25 lakhs
Third prize amount INR 5 lakhs
Draw method Random selection using transaction IDs
What types of transactions will be considered for these schemes?
According to NITI Aayog, only transactions made through following modes will be eligible for these schemes:
UPI or Unified Payments Interface.
USSD payments.
AEPS or Aadhar Enabled Payment System.
RuPay Cards.
Transactions that will not be considered for these schemes are:
Transactions made using private credit cards
Transactions made using eWallets of private companies like Paytm, Freecharge, MobiKwik etc.
So, what do you think? Are the incentives good enough? Let us know your thoughts through our comments section.
