HYDERABAD: Niti Aayog is going to organize a ‘Digi dhan’ mela in the city from January 18 to 19 to promote digital transactions across the country. This is the first such fair in the country since demonetisation for educating masses on how to use mobile phones for making purchases.
Members of the different levels of society including students, professionals and the common public can attend the free Digi dhan mela where officials and volunteers will explain how to go about digital transactions.
K T Rama Rao, the IT minister said the mela will be held at People’s Plaza at Necklace Road. The Niti Aayog has been organizing such melas across the country as past of its ‘100 days, 100 cities’ drive to combat black money. On December 26, 2016, the first mela was organised in Gurugram, Haryana.
This will be a unique fair where all transactions will be cashless, people will be helped to open bank accounts, enroll for Aadhaar card and they will be educated how to use plastic money, instead of using hard cash. This fair is being organized to change the mindset of the general masses.
Niti Ayog CEO Amitabh Kant said three lakh people won rewards from different cities, towns, and villages in the first 20 days of the melas for making digital payments. The rewards are a means to incentivise digital transactions. Every day Niti Aayog has been picking up 15,000 customers to be a part of a draw and the lucky one’s bag cash prizes. A prize of 1,000 is given to them for making any payment from 50 to 3,000 digitally.
On January 9, the ‘Digi dhan’ mela was organized in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh where 31,025 digital transactions took place.