Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hand over the prizes at a function in Nagpur on April 14.
A Central Bank of India (CBI) customer has bagged a prize of Rs 10 million ($155,000) for a transaction of Rs 1,590 ($24) under Indian government’s scheme to promote cashless transactions.
The second prize of Rs 5 million ($77,500) went to a Bank of Baroda customer and a Punjab National Bank customer got the third prize of Rs 2.5 million ($38,750).
For the merchants, the first prize was Rs 5 million ($77,500) followed by Rs 2.5 million ($38,750) and Rs 1.2 million ($18,600). The names and details about the winners are not yet announced.
President Pranab Mukherjee draw lots for the 100th mega draw for Lucky Grahak Yojana and Digi Dhan Vyapar Yojana at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Sunday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hand over the prizes at a function in Nagpur on April 14.
“India has a long way to go to become a cash less society,” the president said. “Presently, we remain primarily a cash based economy about 95% of the personal consumption and 86% of all transactions being in cash. The initiatives of the government are a good beginning and we need to sustain and nurture these with active participation from all segments of the society. It is necessary to reduce cash in circulation and impact greater urgency to promoting secure digital payment methods to ensure greater transparency.”
The president also mentioned the Aadhaar system and called it as the watershed event in the development story of India.
“India is on the cusp of a digital revolution. More than one billion Indians having a unique identity number with a biometric identifier which is unique in its own way. Even countries which are technologically far more advanced than India with comparatively much smaller size population do not have such a system in place,” he said adding that Aadhaar enabled payment system has made digital payments possible for even those people who may not have mobile phones.
The schemes, Lucky Grahak Yojana for consumers and Digi Dhan Vyapar Yojana for merchants, were announced in December, soon after the demonetization of Rs 500 ($7.75) and Rs 1,000 ($15.5) bills. Both schemes were intended to promote digital transactions and have been implemented by the National Payment Corporation of India.