Digital transactions worth Rs 20,000 cr clocked in India a day: Modi in 88th Mann Ki Baat

“In the last few years, BHIM UPI has rapidly become a part of our economy and habits. Now, even in small towns and most villages, people do transactions through UPI. A culture of digital economy is also evolving in the country. In small street shops, digital payment has made it easy to serve more customers. Now they don’t even have the problem of loose change,” he said, adding that at present, “transactions worth about Rs 20,000 crore take place in our country every day”.

“Last March, UPI transactions reached around Rs 10 lakh crore. Due to this, convenience is also increasing across the country and an atmosphere of honesty is being created. Now several fin-tech start-ups are also coming up,” he said.

Sharing this month's #MannKiBaat. Hear LIVE. https://t.co/IJ1Ll9gAmu

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 24, 2022

Modi greeted citizens ahead of upcoming festivals, including Eid, Akshaya Tritiya, Vaishakh Budh Purnima and the birth anniversary of Bhagwan Parshuram, and reiterated the need to continue precautions against Covid-19. “Celebrate these festivals with great gaiety and harmony. In the midst of all this, you also have to be alert against corona. Wearing a mask, washing hands at regular intervals, whatever are the necessary measures for prevention, keep following them,” he said.

Dedicating this month’s Mann ki Baat to all former prime ministers of the country, he spoke about the inauguration of the Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya or Prime Ministers’ Museum in Delhi. He mentioned the spinning wheel gifted to Lal Bahadur Shastri by his in-laws and his bank passbook which has been exhibited at the museum.

Modi also talked of Morarji Desai’s long administrative career and his position as a deputy collector in Gujarat before he joined the freedom struggle, besides Chaudhary Charan Singh’s contribution to abolishing zamindari, PV Narasimha Rao’s keen interest in land reforms, Chandra Shekhar’s historic 4,000-km Bharat Yatra and Atal Behari Vajpayee’s speeches. The museum also has interesting information about Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Dr BR Ambedkar, Jai Prakash Narayan and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Modi added.

Speaking of technological advancements for the disabled, the Prime Minister mentioned the start-up Voice of Specially Abled People which works in assistive technology and has set up a digital art gallery of paintings by Divyang artists.

With the onset of summer, Modi also reminded everyone of the need for water conservation. “It is possible that there may be plenty of water available where you are now. But you also have to remember the crores of people who live in water-stressed areas for whom every drop of water is like an elixir. In the 75th year of Independence, under the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, water conservation is one of the resolutions on which the country is moving forward.”

“During the Amrit Mahotsav, 75 Amrit Sarovars will be built in every district of the country. You can imagine how big the campaign is. The day is not far when there will be 75 Amrit Sarovars in your own city,” he said. Modi added that in the gram panchayat of Patwai in Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur, a polluted lake has been cleaned up and retaining walls constructed around it, besides setting up a food court, fountains and lighting in the area.

He named indigenous communities that are traditionally involved in water conservation, especially the Maldhari tribe in the Rann of Kutch which uses a method called ‘vridas’ using which small wells are built and trees and saplings planted nearby to protect it. Similarly, the Bhil tribe of Madhya Pradesh uses its tradition of ‘halma’ to conserve water.

The Prime Minister also spoke about the role of vedic mathematics in making Indians comfortable with maths.