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 were rampant
leakages in the government delivery mechanism. The 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 the delivery mechanism
for 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 a Jandhan account, linking it to a 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 the delivery mechanism for 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 revolutionize the lives of common
men is an ambitious project of the Prime Minister. He has been successively
encouraging startups to innovate and come out with FinTech solutions using
Artificial Intelligence (AI), data mining, and processing. Creating a Start-Up
ecosystem through a 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 interfaces, through Atal Tinkering Lab and
Atal Innovation Mission. Organizing and supporting innovation Hackathons by
public sector enterprises and streamlining the Patents regime, is a well-traversed
path of the government. FinTech innovations and solutions have highly
revolutionized the 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 reduce the technological
divide between 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 centers (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 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, and 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 crore
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 from getting into the wrong hands, benefiting about 90 crore people. this year alone the government
has transferred Rs 85 thousand crores to the farmer's account on food grain
purchases via MSP. The government has also transferred about Rs 1.35 lac crore
directly to farmers' accounts under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samaan Nidhi and PM
Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) making digital history for
street vendors and helping easily fund availability.
The new initiative of the e-RUPI voucher is an innovative instrument
for fund transfer to the targeted person for a specific purpose. When the
government issues an e-RUPI voucher, it ensures that the fund is used for a
specific purpose only. This people-specific and person-specific payment system
functions as a pre-paid gift voucher, redeemable at service centers. 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
utilized at their discretion. It can be used for CSR activities by corporations, donations by charitable institutions, and individuals for third-party support. It has immense future potential in the field of fertilizer
subsidy, free ration, pregnant women's 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 the 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 the National Spokesperson of the BJP)
