Central Bank customer wins Rs1 crore bumper prize for digital payment

A Central Bank of India customer has won the Rs1-crore promotional lottery under the government's scheme to popularise digital payments launched after the demonetisation drive.

President Pranab Mukherjee picked a Rs1,590 transaction carried out through Central Bank as the lucky winner in a draw of lots at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on Sunday.

In the Lucky Grahak Yojana (lucky customer scheme) lottery for consumers, the first prize of Rs1 crore went to a Central Bank of India customer while the second prize of Rs50 lakh went to a Bank of Baroda customer. A customer of Punjab National Bank won the third prize of Rs25 lakh.

Three merchants won prizes of Rs50 lakh, Rs25 lakh and Rs12 lakh, respectively under the Digi Dhan Vyapar Yojana

The President congratulated the six winners - three consumers and three merchants - of the Lucky Grahak Yojana and the Digi Dhan Vyapar Yojana

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will felicitate the winners on 14 April at Nagpur on the occasion of Ambedkar Jayanti.

All the three customers had done their transactions with their RuPay debit cards. The names of the winners are not yet known as the draw only displayed their transaction numbers. These will be matched with card details to identify the winners.

In his address, President Pranab Mukherjee urged all citizens to extend their unstinted support to the mission of a less-cash India. He said India is on the cusp of a digital revolution. More than one billion Indians have a unique identity number in Aadhaar with a biometric identifier which is unique in its own way. He appreciated that the Aadhaar enabled payment system has made digital payments possible for even those section of the population who may not have mobile phones.

The President complemented the government on its bold initiatives for promoting the culture of digital payment in the country. He said it was in line with such bold initiatives that the Parliament made a new beginning in financial management through passage of the annual budget by 31 March 2017.

The two schemes were launched on 25 December 2016. Under the scheme, daily, weekly and monthly rewards worth Rs256 crore has been disbursed to over 1.6 million citizens over the past 100 days for making and accepting small transactions digitally. Modeled after a careful study of best practices undertaken internationally to create an economy that is minimally reliant on cash, the schemes have been executed over a period of 100 days.

Over the past 100 days, everyday 15,000 consumers have qualified for total prize money of Rs1.5 crore. Additionally, 14,000 weekly winners - both consumers and merchants - have received a total prize money of over Rs8.3 crore every week.

Customers and merchants using RuPay Card, BHIM / UPI (Bharat Interface for Money / Unified Payments Interface), USSD-based *99# service and Aadhaar Enabled Payment Service (AePS) have been eligible for wining daily and weekly lucky draw prizes.

''The draw has seen a positive impact from various age groups and occupations in adopting digital payments methods. We have seen a steady increase in the number of transactions made using all payment methods,'' said A P Hota, MD & CEO, NPCI, which has been responsible for conducting the draws.

An analysis of digital payments' users across India reveals that Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Karnataka have emerged as the top five states / UTs with maximum number of winners. The winners are spread across a range of occupational categories, including salaried employees, housewives, farmers and daily wage labourers. While majority of the winners were in the age group of 21 to 30 years, there are also a significant number of winners who are above 60 years of age.

Over 18 million people have downloaded Bharat Interface for Money or the BHIM App, creating a new world record. The UPI based transactions crossed Rs2,000 crore mark in March, showing an increase of 20 per cent since January this year.