Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Shri Prakash Javadekar launched ‘Vittiya Saksharata Abhiyan’ in New Delhi today. Pursuant to the Honorable Prime Minister’s appeal to youth in ‘Mann Ki Baat’ for creating awareness among people about digital economy and cashless modes of transactions, Union HRD Minister appealed to the faculty and especially young students to come forward and join ‘Vittiya Saksharata Abhiyan’ to encourage, create awareness and motivate all people around them to use a digitally enabled cashless economic system for transfer of fund.

Speaking at the Video Conference with all Higher Education Institutions held at NIC Headquarters today, the Union Minister said that our country is undergoing transformational shift towards digital economy and youth should not only witness the change but also proactively participate in it by becoming agents of change. Union Minister emphasized that technology can be leveraged to bring financial digital literacy and a step forward toward digital economy.

The Union HRD Minister also appealed to higher education institutes to receive nothing in cash (fee/fines/deposits) and pay nothing in cash (wages/salaries/vendor payments) and develop a cashless campus (covering shops/canteens/services). He called upon young students, who can adapt to technology easily and quickly, to educate at home and in their surroundings to create digital financial literacy. He also suggested that NCC/NSS volunteers can spread awareness about these digital modes of transactions to shopkeepers, vendors in nearest market place. The Union HRD Minister launched a webpage where students can register themselves, give continuous feedback and suggestions on the initiative as well as upload the progress of their work.

During the presentation in Video Conference, Union HRD Minister cited different modes of digital payment like Pre-Paid Card, Debit Card/RuPay, Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), Mobile Wallet, Aadhar Enabled Payment System (AEPS), Unified Payment Interface (UPI), also Point of Sale (Physical/Virtual) and appealed to all students to ‘Go Digital’. He also highlighted that these digital platforms are easy to use, convenient, secure and anytime accessible by anyone anywhere.

Shri Mahendra Nath Pandey, Minister of State, Ministry of HRD, Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO NITI Aayog, Shri Anil Swarup, Secretary, Department of SE & L, Shri R Subramanyam, Additional Secretary (TE), Department of HE, Ms Neeta Verma, Director General, NIC were also present on this occasion along with the other senior officials of the Ministry of HRD.

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