Union Minister Prakash Javadekar today claimed there are enough indications to show that people are "restless to go totally digital" and asserted that cashless system is a must to eliminate corruption.
"The country is becoming more and more aspirational and forward looking under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In an atmosphere like this there is no question of demonetisation exercise not achieving its goals," he said.
"India has all that it takes to become a cashless society. We have 109 core Aadhaar Cards, 100 crore mobile phone connections and 100 crore savings bank accounts. If we have all this why can't we become a cashless society," the Union HRD minister asked.
"The country is eager for digital transactions and one of the indicators is the speed at which around three crore people across the country installed the Bhim App launched by the Prime Minister recently," Javadekar said.
Addressing a seminar on "Cashless Transactions in Educational Institutions" at The Indian Public School here, he asked the youths to become a part of the country's "digital army" and become vehicles of its transformation into a cashless or less cash society.
Adoption of cashless system is a must to eliminate corruption. Only four per cent of developed countries' GDP are in cash, while the figure stood at 12 per cent in India, the minister said.
"With 12 per cent of India's GDP in cash, corruption has reached its peak which led the Prime Minister to take a drastic measure like demonetisation," he said.
"70 crore people in the country have debit cards and if we use those we are spared from going to banks or ATMs. Also, gift cards, prepaid cards, petrol cards will help us become a less cash society," Javadekar said.
The main challenge before the Centre is to reduce cash transactions in urban areas and 500 cities have been selected initially to achieve this.
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