Digital Payment is the order of the day: Proud Winners of the mega draw

NEW DELHI (INDIA): The six lucky winners of the first, second and third prize worth Rs.1 crore, Rs.50 lakh and Rs.25 lakh in the consumer category and Rs. Rs.50 lakh, Rs.25 lakh and Rs,12 lakh in the merchants category for embracing digital payments under NITI Aayo?s Lucky Grahak Yojana for consumers and Digidhan Vyapar Yojana for merchants have underlined the need and importance of making digital payments the order of the day.nnThe proud winners were felicitated by the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi for their contribution in making digital payments revolution a mass movement in India.. The winners of the mega draw itself are a testimony to the spread of the digital payments revolution in the country.nnThe lucky winners the Mega Draw were felicitated by the Prime Minister on this occasion.n20 year-old Shradha Mohan Mengshette, a second year student of Electrical Engineering from Latur district in Maharashtra, emerged as the winner of Rs.1 crore mega draw for consumers. She won the reward for making a transaction of Rs.1590 through her Rupay card online, to pay the monthly EMI for her new mobile phone.nnThe 2nd prize of Rs. 50 lakh, under the Lucky GrahakYojana for consumers, was won by Hardik Kumar from Khambhat in Gujarat. The 29-year-old is a primary school teacher who used hisRupay card for making a transaction of Rs. 1100.nnAnother RuPay card transaction, of just Rs.100, won Bharat Singh from the Sherpur village in Uttarakhand an amount of Rs. 25 lakh.nnThe 1st prize of Rs. 50 lakh, under the Digi-DhanVyaparYojana category for merchants, was won by AnandAnanthapadmanabhan for accepting a payment of Rs.300 at GRT Jewellers in Tambaram, Tamil Nadu.nnThe 2nd prize of Rs. 25 lacs was won by RaginiRajendraUttekar, owner of a small beauty parlour in Thane, Maharashtra. She accepted a payment of Rs.510 which won her this amount.nnThe 3rd prize of Rs. 12 lakh was won by 33 year-old Shaik Rafi who runs a wholesale clothing store in Ameerpet, Telangana. He accepted a payment of Rs. 2000 on his PoS machine.nnNITI Aayog?s two schemes to incentivize digital payments -Lucky GrahakYojana and DigiDhanVyaparYojana, came to an end after a rigorous 100 day information, education and communication campaign making digital payments a mass movement in India.nnSpread over 100 days since 25th December in 100 cities all over the country, Rs.258 crore of prize money was won by 16 lakh winners, including customers and merchants belonging to different corners of the country and from varied walks of life.nn100 days of DigiDhanMelas, led by NITI Aayog in 100 cities across India, have had a huge impact in enabling increased usage of digital payment methods. At least 15,000 institutions have gone cashless across just these 100 rural and urban cities across each one of the 27 states and 7 UTs. With a turnout of over 15 lakh from cities, small towns and villages, the melas have enabled lakhs to open new bank accounts as well as create new Aadhaar cards.