An initiative in India to bring internet access across the country, helping millions to connect to new digital technologies. One is a payment system that is changing the way business is done in the vast rural areas of the country.
Last year, a dramatic transformation was seen in the way customers paid village traders in northern India. Instead of cash, they use a simple system of scanning a code on a smartphone to make payments online.
Owner and vegetable trader Nishant Sharma said, “Even if someone only buys half a kilogram of vegetables, they can pay digitally. We can make even the smallest transactions. ”
As internet access and affordable smartphones reach low-income groups in India, small kiosks and shops are turning to digital payments, as are stores in big cities.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his Independence Day speech that these innovations are beneficial for rural areas.
“Now 40% of real-time digital transactions, which are done globally, take place in India,” Modi said.
It is one of the transformative technologies linking rural India to the digital age, as the country’s cash-dominated informal economy moves online. [ps/jm]
