The first lot of lottery of Modi government’s twin schemes — Lucky Grahak Yojana for consumers and Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojana for merchants — was launched on Sunday at the Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi.
The draw of lots of 15,000 lucky winners, who used digital mode for payment, was conducted by paralympic Deepa Malik, cricketer Gautam Gambhir, Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley by the click of a button.
While Gambhir made a payment of Rs 13,258 to pay off his electricity bills in front of a packed audience, Deepa Malik said digitalisation was Santa Claus’ gift to India.
A secure and encrypted system generated by the government has been used to randomly select bank account numbers. The winners will be informed by the bank within 24 hours.
The schemes are aimed at encouraging people to move towards a significantly higher usage of digital transactions by offering incentives.
By Baishakhi Dutta
