The Government That Delivers Efficiently

 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)