The Government That Delivers Efficiently
Gopal Krishna Agarwal,
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has launched e-RUPI vouchers.
It is an important initiative of Narendra Modi government. While launching PM
said, “This will help everyone in targeted, transparent, and leakage-free
delivery, e-RUPI is a symbol of how India is progressing by connecting people’s
lives with technology.”
When Shri Narendra Modi came to power in 2014 there was rampant
leakages in government delivery mechanism. Government’s social welfare schemes
were not reaching to the targeted beneficiaries efficiently. The first and
foremost task, Modiji took upon himself was to streamline delivery mechanism
for the social welfare benefits, without leakages in the form of corruption or
otherwise. His landmark initiative of direct benefit transfer (DBT); involved
the financial inclusion program of opening Jandhan account, linking it to
unique Aadhar number and use of digital technologies for online fund transfer,
called the JAM trinity. It was applauded by the World Bank as one of the most
effective financial inclusion programs worldwide.
The first and foremost task, Modiji took upon himself was to
streamline delivery mechanism for the social welfare benefits, without leakages
in the form of corruption or otherwise
More and more
Unified Payment Interface (UPI) for online payments such as BHIM and #99 app
etc. were developed and funds transferred to the beneficiary account directly
through them.
Using financial technologies to revolutionise the life of common
men is an ambitious project of the Prime Minister. He has been successively
encouraging Start-Ups to innovate and come out with FinTech solutions using
Artificial Intelligence (AI), data mining and processing. Creating a Start-Up
ecosystem through series of tax concessions and making investible funds
available, the roadmap of the government is clear. Schemes are also available
for linking academic and industry interface, through Atal Tinkering Lab and
Atal Innovation Mission. Organising and supporting innovation Hackathons by
public sector enterprises and streamlining Patents regime, is a well traversed
path of the government. FinTech innovations and solutions have highly
revolutionised financial ecosystem in India, out of 32 unicorns (one billion
dollar valued start-up company) in 2021, nine are financial technology
companies.
This digital transformation helped in reducing the technological
divide amongst the rich and the poor, and the urban and rural population.
Creating an ecosystem of internet connectivity at the Panchayat level and
establishing computer service centres (CSC) under the Digital-India platform,
helped in ease of living for the people. Using technology Modi government is
achieving its promise of minimum government and maximum governance. The
technology driven solutions reduced human interventions and subjectivity in the
decision making and its implementation, helping everyone to go for his
day-to-day life smoothly. The objective online solutions for government schemes
and programs save the people from running from pillar to post reducing human
interface, bringing down levels of corruption to a large extent.
Digital-India initiatives such as implementation of GST, virtual
e-assessment, government e-market (GEM) platform, digital locker, direct
benefit transfers (DBT), online payments; BHIM app and #99, e-mandis, PSB loans
in 59 minutes, Digi-Locker, start-up ecosystem, Aarogya Setu, CoWIN apps &
issue of digital certificate, RuPay card, fast tag facilities at toll plaza and
now e-RUPI vouchers have transformed the life of common men. Prime Minister
Modi has been successful in using technology to efficiently implement
government schemes whether it is the delivery of social benefits to the
targeted individuals or Ease of Doing Business (EODB), creating a corruption
free ecosystem of benefit delivery and governance. In July’21 month alone,
Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the flagship payments platform of the National
Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) processed a record 324 crores
transactions. In value terms, the platform processed transactions worth Rs 6.06
lac crores.
Our government has been successful in transferring Rs 17.5 Lac
crores of funds to the targeted beneficiaries under 300 government schemes and
has also succeeded in saving Rs 1.75 lakh crores preventing them getting into
wrong hands, benefiting about 90 crore people. this year alone the government
has transferred Rs 85 thousand crores to the farmers account on food grain
purchases via MSP. The government has also transferred about Rs 1.35 lac crore
directly to farmers account under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samaan Nidhi and PM
Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) making digital history for
street vendors and helping easy fund availability.
The new initiative of e-RUPI voucher is an innovative instrument
for fund transfer to the targeted person for a specific purpose. When the
government issues e-RUPI voucher, it ensures that the fund is used for the
specific purpose only. This people-specific and person-specific payment system
functions as a pre-paid gift-voucher, redeemable at service centres. This
ensures the connectivity of the sponsors of the services, beneficiaries and the
service provider on a digital platform. Once this scheme is implemented by
private organizations and individuals, they are ensured that the fund is
utilised as per their discretion. It can be used for CSR activities by the
corporates, donations by charitable institutions and individuals for third
party support. It has immense future potential in the field of fertiliser
subsidy, free ration, pregnant women nutritional support etc.
The government is working on the push model, where schemes are
announced, and targets set, making government officials responsible for their
implementations, instead of pull model where citizens had to run after
government departments to avail benefits. Identification of 115 aspirational
districts and overseeing by the district administration for the eligible
beneficiaries receiving them, is a case in point. It has been the endeavor of
Shri Narendra Modi to identify a problem, build a technological solution for
resolution, integrate the stakeholders with it and establish a performance
matrix for evaluation and accountability for its efficient implementation.
(The writer is National Spokesperson of BJP)
