After Nuagaon's success, Odisha set to have eight more cashless villages

Nodal agency to work with banks to help villages go digital; next step: take cashless across state

It is Odisha’s turn now to make a splash in the cashless pool. As the country gradually switches over to a more formal, cashless economy, villages in Odisha are catching up with other states.

Having officially declared Nuagaon in Puri district as her first cashless village in December 2016, Odisha is piloting trials in eight other potential villages which can seamlessly migrate to the cashless platform. The identified villages are in the districts of Cuttack, Balasore, Nayagarh, Rayagada, Sambalpur and Deogarh.
 
The Odisha Livelihoods Mission has been designated the nodal agency in helping the villages to shift to digital transactions.

“We will create awareness programmes jointly with the banks to do the transactions using less cash. Our focus is to motivate the SHG (self help groups) members to transact on digital platforms. After successfully implementing it, we aim to do the same all across the state,” said a state government official.

Nuagaon, with a population of over 1,000, has led the way for a transition from cash to cashless. Nuagaon's villagers have started using debit cards and credit cards for buying goods and performing other transactions. Even, daily wages are being paid digitally. All the villagers have been equipped with e-wallets and plastic cards.

Banks have played a key role in scripting the transformation from cash to cashless.

Efforts towards a cashless society are not spearheaded by the government alone. Paytm is helping Manguli village, known to be a trade hub, on the outskirts of Cuttack, to move to cashless transactions. There are 26 Odisha villages on Paytm’s radar.

“We have identified 26 villages across Odisha for our cashless village initiative. We are actively coordinating with the local administration and trade bodies in the region to educate them about the benefits of going cashless”, said a Paytm spokesperson.

Paytm’s digital village initiative serves the dual purpose of offering customers access to a quick and easy cashless payment solution and allowing the firm to tap into the widest set of merchants across India. At Manguli, Paytm has received a strong interest from the consumers and merchants. It is conducting workshops to inform merchants about the benefits of using Paytm and increase overall awareness about digital payments.

“We are on-boarding merchants at Manguli, thus helping its residents adopt a digital lifestyle. This has raised overall awareness about digital transactions and helped us tap into a wider set of merchants. As more merchants realize the benefits of using our zero cost payment system, we will further deepen our reach in Manguli and continue to expand our payment network in the region”, said the Paytm spokesperson in an e-mail response.