THE HINDU – CURRENT NOTE 15 APRIL
India seeks access to Jadhav
He has right to move appellate court and file mercy petition, says Sartaj Aziz
•India on Friday again sought consular access to former Navy official Kulbhushan Jadhav now facing the gallows in Pakistan, which has not addressed 13 earlier requests for the same. Islamabad accused Mr. Jadhav of carrying out attacks inside Pakistan since 2014-15 but said that he will have the chance to appeal for mercy.
•“We have stated that he [Jadhav] is an Indian national and as per international law and humanitarian considerations, let us at least have consular access to him,” Gautam Bambawale, Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan said, after a meeting with Foreign Secretary of Pakistan Tehmina Janjua.
No swap plan: Envoy
•Mr. Bambawale denied knowledge of any plan to exchange Mr. Jadhav for a Pakistani intelligence official in Indian custody and sought more information from Pakistan about the charges against him.
•“Till date, we have not been informed of the charges against him. At least give [us] the charge sheet to see what are the charges against him,” Mr. Bambawale said, speaking in Hindi to the Pakistani media after his meeting.
•The Hindu had earlier reported that Pakistan had not shared any information about the physical conditions of the former naval official and India had therefore begun planning a request for consular access.
•However, Pakistan has not indicated that it would give a positive response to the latest request and a press release from the office of the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan claimed that Mr. Jadhav has admitted to his ‘involvement in subversive activities.’
•“The Foreign Secretary underscored that the Pakistanis incarcerated in Indian prisons have not been provided consular access for years, despite repeated requests and follow-up by the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi,” the release stated.
•The Ministry of External Affairs stated that consular access is necessary to find out more about the case against Mr. Jadhav. But in an elaborate defence of Pakistan’s position, Sartaj Aziz, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, has said that Mr. Jadhav has the right to appeal for mercy.
•“As per law… he has the right to appeal within 40 days to an Appellate Court. He may lodge a mercy petition to the COAS (Chief of Army Staff) within 60 days of the decision by the appellate court. He may lodge a mercy petition to the President of Pakistan within 90 days after the decision of COAS on the mercy petition,” said Mr. Aziz.
•Mr. Aziz also stated that India had not responded to a Pakistan request on the case. “Letter of Assistance requesting specific information and access to certain key witnesses was shared with the Government of India on 23 January, 2017. There has been no response from the Indian side so far,” he said.
‘Serving official’
•Pakistan also claimed that contrary to India’s claims, Mr. Jadhav is a serving official of the Indian Navy and conducted a series of attacks against Pakistan since 2014-15, especially in Balochistan.
•“Kulbhushan Jadhav has sponsored explosions of gas pipelines and electric pylons in Sibi and Sui areas in Balochistan,” alleged Mr. Aziz.
BHIM-Aadhaar will be an economic giant: PM
The Prime Minister inaugurates various development works here to mark the birth anniversary of B.R. Ambedkar
•Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the BHIM-Aadhaar (a digital payment platform that uses the Aadhaar number) in Nagpur on Friday on the occasion of the 126th birth anniversary of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, and hoped that the digital platform would be an “economic giant” like the Constitution, through which Dr. Ambedkar empowered the common man.
•Showering praise on the “architect of the Indian Constitution” at a function here, Mr. Modi said, “Like Shiva (a Hindu god), Dr. Ambedkar also drank the poison of hatred all his life but he did not carry even the slightest of bitterness neither in the Indian Constitution nor in his speeches. Today, we are trying to give a new system on his birth anniversary.”
•“We have a dream that by 2022, every Indian should have his own house with the facilities of electricity, water, and nearby hospitals. No one should be homeless. Let us strive to live the dreams of Dr. Ambedkar which he enshrined in the Constitution,” the Prime Minister said.
•Taking a dig at the critics of his economic decisions such as demonetisation, Mr. Modi said he was “astounded” by the opinions of many scholars (on demonetisation and cashless economy).
•“Earlier they debated the BHIM application and now they are debating about the Aadhaar. Let them do it but we are working hard towards making India a digital economy and ‘Digidhan’ is an important part of it. Very soon, the ‘Digidhan’ will be synonymous with ‘Nijidhan’ [private property]. Now you don’t even need a mobile phone [for digital transactions]. If your Aadhaar number is linked with your bank accounts, then your thumb impression is enough to carry out a digital transaction. You don’t need to carry a single rupee with you. Even the most advanced technologies in the world don’t have this system. Very soon, major universities in the world will come to study the BHIM-Aadhaar. This is going to be a reference point for a big change in the world,” he claimed.
•The Prime Minister suggested that he was following the “economic philosophy” of Dr. Ambedkar and claimed that the “Digidhan” was a big campaign against corruption.
•“Every corrupt person is scared today that it’s Modi’s rule now and he may be trapped anytime. Those who are using BHIM-Aadhaar will be our soldiers against corruption and black money,” the PM said.
New UGC vice-chairman soon
A search-cum-selection committee interacts with candidates
•With interactions of candidates with a search-cum-selection committee taking place on Thursday, the University Grants Commission is set to have a new Vice-Chairman soon.
•The post had fallen vacant some months ago.
•The candidates who were short-listed for the interaction, sources say, included JNU professor Ashwini Mahapatra, UGC secretary Jaspal Singh Sandhu and Delhi University professor Bidyut Chakrabarty, among others.
Front runner
•The search-cum-selection committee, sources say, includes the Secretary (Higher Education), former Kavikulaguru Kalidas Sanskrit University (Nagpur) Vice-Chancellor Pankaj Chande, Karnataka Central University Chancellor N.R. Shetty and former North Gujarat University Vice-Chancellor Balvant Jani on it.
•Present UGC secretary Jaspal Sandhu is being seen as the front runner for the post, though the decision is likely to take some days.
•Also, with UGC chairman Ved Prakash having retired, a search-cum-selection committee is set to look for a successor for him.
•Sources say the committee will have H.R. Nagendra, who has done his doctorate from IISc Bengaluru in mechanical engineering and has also been associated with Harvard University and Imperial College, London, on it.
•Former Lucknow University Vice-Chancellor D.P. Singh and former Saurashtra University Vice-Chancellor K.P. Joshipura are also on the committee, the sources add.
•With the UGC having faced flak from some committees in the past, the new team at the helm will have its task cut out.
Faces flak
•The higher education regulator faced flak from the TSR Subramanian Committee, which while providing inputs for the new education policy argued that the law that created the UGC be allowed to lapse.
•The committee’s report, submitted recently to the Ministry of Human Resource Development, said the UGC had been unable to effectively implement its regulations aimed at ensuring the quality of higher education over the years.
•The report had itself cited the earlier Hari Gautam Committee report, saying that the report was understood to have concluded that the UGC did not have adequate number of personnel of requisite quality to be an effective regulatory force in the higher education sector.
NAAC grades
•The MHRD has also made the NAAC grades of educational institutions certifying quality almost irrelevant by devising the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) to rank institutions. NAAC is an autonomous body under the UGC.
Allahabad HC becomes ‘pilot project’ for case backlog study
CSC refers to delay in disposal of cases at the cost of gross human rights violations
•The Supreme Court has asked itself why numerous orders over the decades suggesting “action plans” to combat staggering backlog of cases in High Courts and trial courts have literally produced no answers and hardly any results.
•Justice Jasti Chelameswar ruminated on how the “phenomenon of mounting pendency and discomfiting delay in disposal of cases” continue at the cost of gross human rights violations to undertrials, convicts — both who languish behind the walls of prisons, at times spend the entirety of their prison sentence behind bars while their appeals or bail applications stagnate for decades without a hearing — and victims of crime.
Bail plea
•The Supreme Court’s third seniormost judge had found himself hearing a plea for bail by a convict in a murder case. Defence lawyer Dushyant Parashar apprised Justice Chelameswar that his client’s appeal against his conviction was pending in the Allahabad HC for over a decade without a hearing. Mr. Parashar told the Supreme Court that, with the current backlog at the Allahabad HC, his client entertains no hope of a hearing of his appeal.
•Ordering the HC to complete the hearing of the appeal against conviction in four months, Justice Chelameswar, in a seven-page order, wondered about the “umpteen occasions” in which the Supreme Court has suggested proposals and framed guidelines to end pendency in courts.
•How the judiciary has been, in a sense, inadvertently responsible for violation of the fundamental right to speedy trial and disposal of criminal appeals under Article 21 of the Constitution.
Novel move
•So, in a novel move, the Supreme Court decided to put the Allahabad HC under the microscope as a “pilot project” to investigate how High Courts deal with pendency. The SC said this was a “target-specific” exercise to study how criminal appeals face years of delay as appellants face “inhuman compulsions” inside jails.
•Justice Chelameswar called for real-time statistics from the Allahabad HC and roped in senior advocates Shyam Divan and C.U. Singh to assist the Supreme Court.
•“We are of the view that it is imperative for this court to initiate a target specific exercise, and for the purpose obtain and analyse the relevant data at the first instance with regard to the pendency of the criminal appeals before the Allahabad High Court,” Justice Chelameswar ordered.
Particulars sought
•The Bench directed the HC Registrar to hand over particulars of the criminal appeals, category-wise and year-wise, for the study in four weeks.
•It sought the High Court to produce details of the institution and disposal statistics of last 10 years, average disposal time of the appeals, identified causes for the delay, steps already taken and in contemplation for tackling and accelerating disposals, mechanism in place to oversee the process and progress recorded.
•The Supreme Court said the selection of the Allahabad High Court, one of the oldest High Courts in the country, should not be construed as a comment on its functioning or any deficiency thereof.
Cross signals across the Himalayas
•India must realise that China is no longer willing to remain a status quo power
•The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, was in Arunachal Pradesh recently, which has greatly ruffled China’s feathers. Any reference to Arunachal Pradesh (‘Southern Tibet’ as China prefers to call it), in context or out of context, has the effect of raising temperatures in Beijing. The prolonged stay of His Holiness in the Tawang Monastery was, hence, the straw that broke the camel’s back.
•The mild-mannered Dalai Lama spoke with unusual candour during his visit to Arunachal Pradesh, seeming to be at times even obliquely critical of China, something he had previously avoided. All these years, he had displayed remarkable restraint, despite constant Chinese provocations. On this occasion, his statements should, therefore, have come as a surprise to China.
•Choice of words
•Nothing that the Dalai Lama said during his visit can even be remotely viewed as accusatory of China, but the words he employed — “I’ve long forgiven China’s Communist Government for occupying Tibet”; we support a ‘One China policy’, “all we want is the right to preserve our culture, language and identity”; “the 1.4 billion Chinese people have every right to know the reality (of Tibet)”, “once they know the reality they will be able to judge”, “until now there has been only one-sided, wrong information” — had the effect of a whiplash and was bound to irk China. What should have provoked the Chinese even more is that at one point, reacting to Chinese objections to his Arunachal Pradesh visit, the Dalai Lama said, “I am the messenger of ancient Indian thoughts and values. I thank the Government of India for the support.”
•So far, China’s reactions have been on predictable lines, though perhaps more incendiary than in the past. Beijing has issued a series of warnings, viz., that the Dalai Lama’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh would cause “deep damage” to Sino-Indian ties, that New Delhi would need to make ‘a choice’ in its dealings with the Tibetan spiritual leader, that India had breached its commitment on the Tibet issue, taking particular umbrage at the Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister’s statement that the State did not share its borders with China but with Tibet and asking India to stick to its ‘political pledges’ and not hurt China-India relations.
•Official démarches were couched in still more intemperate language. Some were in the nature of a threat, that the visit would escalate disputes in the border area, fuel tensions between the two countries, impinge on China’s major concerns and core interests, territory and sovereignty, and thus damage India-China relations. Chinese official media and the Chinese Communist Party, in turn, stepped up pressure on the Chinese government to take action against India. The China Daily observed that “if New Delhi chooses to play dirty… Beijing should not hesitate to answer blows with blows”. Chinese official spokespersons have rounded off this kind of diatribe by affirming that issues concerning Tibet have a bearing on China’s “core interests”.
•China’s verbal outbursts on this occasion do not conform to type, even where they relate to the Dalai Lama. For China, a visit by the Dalai Lama to Arunachal Pradesh, including a sojourn in the Tawang Monastery, one of the holiest of Tibetan Buddhism, is no ordinary matter. As it is, China has certain deep-seated concerns about increasing political instability in areas such as Tibet, apart from the happenings in Xinjiang as well as other security problems. The Dalai Lama’s visit to Tawang at this time could, hence, look like a provocation.
•Very recently, China had floated the idea of an Integrated National Security Concept, reflecting the extent of its prevailing insecurities. This has introduced certain ‘redlines’, that China would never compromise its legitimate rights and interests, or sacrifice its “core national interests”. On more than one occasion during the current exchanges, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokespersons had referred to issues concerning Tibet (and Southern Tibet) as having a direct bearing on China’s “core interests”.
•Current China-India exchanges, hence, need to be examined from the purview of both international relations as well as the domestic situation prevailing in China. It must not be overlooked that the that Sino-Indian conflict of 1962 occurred soon after China’s disastrous Great Leap Forward, in which a large number of Chinese perished, and the Dalai Lama fleeing Tibet and taking sanctuary in India. In 1962, Beijing had masked its intentions skilfully, while India, in the absence of any major overt action by China, was lulled into a false sense of complacency.
•We need to ensure that there is no repetition of lack of vigil on our part. In 1959-60, the Dalai Lama had not quite attained the same international stature that he currently enjoys as the most revered symbol of Tibetan Buddhism. Yet, China was even then willing to risk a conflict with India, then the undisputed leader of the Non-Aligned Movement, angered by the grant of asylum to the Dalai Lama. The stakes for China are, if anything, greater today, as it seeks to emerge as a global leader. China would like to ensure that its ‘rear’ remains quiescent, rather than troubled, so as to devote its energies to attain its goals.
The Tawang factor
•Indian commentators keep referring from time to time to the fact that China had shifted its stand on Tawang. This may be true, but there is little doubt about the centrality of Tawang (the birth place of the sixth Dalai Lama) in China’s scheme of things for this region. During several rounds of discussions on the Sino-Indian border, my counterpart as the Chinese Special Representative for boundary talks, Dai Bingguo, made it amply clear to me that Tawang was non-negotiable. In 2005, China signed an Agreement on the Political Parameters and Guiding Principles for the Settlement of the India-China Boundary Question (Dai Bingguo and I were the signatories) which stipulated that areas with settled populations would not be affected in any exchange. Even before the ink was dry, China began to dissimulate as far as Tawang was concerned, even though Tawang is the most ‘Indianised’ place in the entire Northeast. All this leaves little scope for compromise with regard to areas like Tawang.
•Understanding the way the Chinese mind works is important. It tends to be eclectic, contextual and relational, leaning towards systemic content and history. Chinese thinking tends to be convoluted and its methodology obtuse. Chinese assertiveness is often rooted in strategic insecurity and a perceived sensitivity to domestic tensions. China constantly flaunts its ‘exceptionalism’ and its ‘uniqueness’. Chinese exceptionalism tends today to be largely historical and revivalist. A combination of Mao’s utopianism and Deng Xiaoping’s realism has left China in a kind of philosophical vacuum. It has led to an excess of nationalism and nationalistic fervour, making China’s objectives clear-cut.
•China’s policymakers are cautious by temperament but are known to take risks. They are skilled at morphing the gains favoured by each past civilisation and adjusting these to modern conditions. They prefer attrition to forceful intervention, a protracted campaign to gain a relative advantage.
•Currently, China has jettisoned the Guiding Principles laid down by Deng Xiaoping, “coolly observe..., hide your capacities, bide your time”. Buoyed by its military muscle, and with a defence budget of $151.5 billion (2017) which is much larger than that of all other nations with the exception of the U.S., China is no longer willing to remain a status quo power, or play by existing rules governing the international order. India must realise this, and avoid being caught unawares.
The OBOR outlier
•As it is, China is constantly seeking ways to isolate India. It is engaged in building advantageous power relations, acquiring bases and strengthening ties with countries across Asia, Africa and beyond. China’s latest One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative signifies its new outreach, extending from the eastern extremity of Asia to Europe — the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor represents its most significant strategic aspect — and has the backing of most countries in the region. India is an outlier in this respect, and perhaps the only major Asian nation that has not yet endorsed the concept. If as China anticipates that OBOR has the potential to alter the status quo across the region with most nations accepting a long-term commitment to China, India could find itself friendless in Asia and beyond.
Doctors under siege
Workplace violence against health-care workers can only be checked in the backdrop of improved infrastructure
•There have been numerous media reports of instances of violence against doctors and health-care institutions across India. In most cases, the proximate cause is the death of a patient. All reports suggest that most of these patients could not have been saved with the infrastructure available in the institution, yet their deaths have been seen as a case of neglect by medical personnel. Doctors have responded to these attacks with anger and anguish, by striking work, demanding more security and even taking to social media with messages about how the profession is seen as an easy target.
Growing violence
•Violence against doctors is not new. The World Health Organisation published guidelines on handling workplace violence in 2002. However, the incidence and intensity of violence against medical professionals in India is on the rise.
•It is important to reflect on how the medical profession — always held in respect in our society — has come to such a sorry pass where health-care workers need protection from the very people they are meant to take care of. It appears that these attacks are symptomatic of a larger malaise, manifested in a general increase in violence as a method of demonstrating power, loss of faith in institutions, anger against perceived marginalisation, and lack of understanding of science and society. The state has failed to stand firm on the rule of law. Civil society has been complicit. Each group in our fractured society becomes vocal only when its interests are affected. Thus doctors, pillars of the establishment, have failed to ensure the security of the established society by standing up against violence as a method of settling differences.
•The present health-care system in India has inequity built in. Patients can see it. The demand by medical professionals for better pay is seen as selfish. It has to be coupled with demands for patient care such as better access, better facilities, and more personnel so that individual attention can be given. At present, most doctors are not advocates for patients. They play along with governments unwilling to spend on health care and accept the prevalent view that providing public sector health care is a favour and not a right. Doctors are seen as a part of the power structure. When they are attacked, public support and empathy is lacking.
A divide
•Also, tremendous technological advances in medicine are not available to the majority in India. Increasing privatisation, corporatisation and commercialisation of medical care have ensured that many procedures cannot be accessed by the general public. Examples of the privileged having access to extremely expensive care in the private sector, though many of these interventions are usually futile, propagates the idea that modern medicine can salvage even the most critically ill provided enough money is spent.
•There is also a failure to establish and propagate a good understanding of modern science in India. Such understanding would encompass the knowledge that although medicine in the modern world has greatly improved the chances of survival in many serious conditions, there are also many situations in which no intervention will succeed. Otherwise, there remains a suspicion that all was not done to save the patient and that much more would have been done had the patient paid more for an expensive hospital and doctor. The frustration against their own position in society is vented by attacking the doctor and the facility.
A way out
•What can be done? An immediate step is to ensure exemplary action against violence as a means of settling issues. More long-term measures require vastly improved health infrastructure, fewer patients per doctor in line with international norms so that care can not only be given but seen to be given.
•Doctors should participate in spreading understanding of science and society. At present, the public often does not understand the deeper structural problems underlying the apparent failures of the doctors. Medical practitioners should help highlight these.
•Peoples’ committees in hospitals will be a welcome step. There must be a constant audit of the working hours of medical personnel and the fatigued doctor should not be left in the front line to deal with an emotionally charged public. Social workers in crucial departments such as accident and emergency wards to handle anxious crowds will certainly reduce the stress of already overburdened postgraduates and house surgeons.
•Civil society and the medical community must together to demand better health care for our population. We cannot falter now.
‘Maintain EPFO interest rate at 8.65%’
Finance Ministry’s suggestion to cut rate to help retain enough surplus opposed by Labour Minister
•Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya has opposed the Finance Ministry’s request to cut the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) interest rate to 8.6%, from the 8.65% recommended by the fund’s central board of trustees.
•This is the second straight year that North Block has urged the Labour Ministry to cut the EPFO interest rate to keep adequate surplus.
•“The Finance Ministry has recommended keeping the interest rate at 8.6% so that EPFO maintains adequate surplus,” Union Labour Secretary M. Sathiyavathy said. “The Labour Minister has raised the matter with the finance minister this week.”
Delay in interest credit
•The latest tussle between the Finance Ministry and the Labour Ministry has led to a delay in crediting interest amount for 2016-17 to about four crore active subscribers. The EPFO’s central board of trustees, headed by Mr. Dattatreya, had approved an interest rate of 8.65% for 2016-17 in a meeting held on December 19. However, the Labour Ministry is yet to notify the interest rate due to pending in-principle approval of the finance ministry.
•The Finance Ministry told the Labour Ministry in a missive in February that EPFO needed to keep adequate surplus, failing which the government will be liable to compensate for the losses caused by EPFO in case of “mismanagement” of funds due to its investments. Every year, the EPFO keeps a portion of its income as surplus over its liability.
•The Finance Ministry advised the Labour Ministry to amend the Employees’ Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act to “absolve the government of India from the conduct of business by the Board of Trustees in managing the fund.” The EPFO later took up the Finance Ministry’s suggestions for discussion in its finance, investment and audit committee (FIAC) meeting held on March 27.
•“From the date of inception till date CBT, EPF never submitted any proposal to government to compensate or indemnify any loss caused to the Employees’ Provident Fund by deposits in an approved bank or investment in securities,” the agenda item of the FIAC meeting said, countering the Finance Ministry’s views. The EPFO’s FIAC had deferred the agenda item to be taken up in the next meeting.
‘Clear interference’
•EPFO’s income projections in December 2016 showed the recommended interest rate of 8.65% would fetch Rs. 295 crore as surplus. Lowering the interest rate to Finance Ministry’s recommended 8.6% would leave EPFO with a surplus of Rs. 522 crore. A senior Labour Ministry official said the income projections were based on initial estimates and the actual surplus may easily stand at about Rs. 500 crore if interest rate is kept at 8.65% after the final estimates.
•“The central board has never asked for any financial support from the government for managing the funds of EPF subscribers. This is clear interference in the functioning of EPFO’s central board and is not acceptable. The central board is competent to manage EPF funds and government should stay away,” BMS General Secretary Virjesh Upadhyay said.
•The Finance Ministry had pressed for similar arguments last year to overrule the central board of trustees’ proposed interest rate of 8.8% for 2015-16. It had asked the Labour Ministry to keep the interest rate at 8.7% “to facilitate maintaining a reasonable rate of interest in case of decline in the returns on investment in the coming year.”
•However, the EPFO’s interest rate remained unchanged at 8.8% for 2015-16 after the Labour Minister held several rounds of deliberation with the Finance Minister following protests from central trade unions.
RBI, banks trade charges over cash crunch
While banks say cash supply is skewed, RBI asks them to improve logistics
•The cash shortage in the automated teller machines has led to banks and the regulator at loggerheads with banks pointing out supply shortages though the central bank thinks its a logistical issue for the banks. While currency in circulation has been increasing since January but bankers said distribution is skewed towards northern and eastern states.
•According to latest data released by RBI, currency in circulation as on 7 April was Rs 13.61 lakh crore as compared to Rs 12.45 lakh crore as on March 10. While currency in circulation has definitely increased but the pace has slowed down since the last week of March.
•Banker said the distribution of currency was skewed towards the states that went to polls in February-March and the situation has not been corrected even after polls are over.
•“While there is adequate supply of currency in the Northern and Eastern part of the country but supply is not adequate in Western and Southern states. It is not possible for us to move the excess currency notes from one part of the country to another,” said a senior official from a large private sector bank.
•“If our requirement is, say Rs 50 crore from RBI on a particular day we don’t get more than 20%,” said the manager of a large branch of a state-run lender in Mumbai.
•A senior central bank official, has however, denied supply has been curtailed. “We are infusing money which is evident from the fact that currency in circulation numbers are increasing. Banks have to manage logistics properly,” the official said adding that it is quiet possible banks are keeping proportionately more funds in branches and less in ATMs.
•Another senior official from RBI said typically people withdraw more cash during the last and first few days of a month, after which money started come back to the system again.
•However, the official admitted that it is a concern among government and regulator that cash withdrawals are going up steadily. One of the aim of the recent demonetization exercise was to move to a less cash society and encourage digital modes of payment.
•However, cash withdrawals from automated teller machines (ATM) has continued its upward journey which further increased in February 2017 to Rs 1.93 lakh crore from Rs 1.52 lakh crore in January and believed to be on track to reach the pre-demonetisation levels.
•“Following the withdrawal of high value currency notes, digital mode of payments have gained acceptance. However, at the same time cash transactions are also coming back. This is an area of concern,” the RBI official added.
‘Digital trade zooms 23 times’
Post-demonetisation, 15,000 institutions have gone cashless, says NITI Aayog
•About 15,000 institutions have become cashless, following its digi dhan mela initiative held across 100 cities in the country with an aim to create awareness about digital payments, the government think-tank NITI Aayog said.
•“[A] 100-day-long information, education and communication campaign, led by NITI Aayog, was held to make digital payments a mass movement in India,” the Aayog said in a statement.
•“At least 15,000 institutions have gone cashless in these 100 rural and urban cities,” it said.
Volumes gallop
•It claimed that digital payments in the country have grown by close to 23 times since withdrawal of high-value of currency notes was announced in November last year.
•“Volume of all digital transactions increased by about 23 times with 63,80,000 digital transactions for a value of Rs. 2,425 crore in March 2017 (since demonetisation) compared to 2,80,000 digital transactions worth Rs. 101 crore till November 2016 (January-November),” it added.
•Aadhaar-enabled payments have increased from 2.5 crore in November 2016 to more than 5 crore in March 2017, the release said, adding that Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) transactions have gone up from 3.6 crore to 6.7 crore during the same period.
•“BHIM App has already created a new world record by registering 1.9 crore downloads in just four months since its launch in December, 2016,” the Aayog said.
•The Aayog further said more than 15 lakh people from cities, small towns and villages attended the melas, which helped enable lakhs to open new bank accounts as well as create new Aadhaar cards.
