More than 6,26,000 people have won prizes worth Rs. 97.07 crore as a part of NITI Aayog’s digital payment promotion schemes to give a boost to cashless economy across the country till since 25th December last year till 30th January this year..The move is a part of the ongoing efforts of the Government to create an ecosystem which provides incentives for digital transactions. Among the lucky winners are 5,55,000 consumers who have won Rs.1000 each under the Lucky Grahak Yojana- Daily scheme while 26,145 consumers have won under the Lucky Grahak Yojana- Weekly scheme. In addition over 35000 merchants have been declared winners under the Digi dhan Vyapar Yojana-weekly scheme.
Data from National Payment Corporation of India, NPCI reflects that people from different age groups, occupations and different walks of life have taken part in a big way in the Lucky Grahak Yojana and Digi-dhan Vyapar Yojana giving a boost to digital transactions.The two schemes were launched on December 25, 2016 and shall remain open till April 14, 2017. Every day 15,000 daily winners vie for total prize money of Rs. 1.5 crore at the rate of Rs.1000 per person. Over 14,000 winners qualify for weekly draws with the total prize money of over Rs. 8.3 crore per week. Customers and merchants using RuPay Card, BHIM, UPI (Bharat Interface for Money/Unified Payment Interface) USSD based *99# service and Aadhaar enabled Payment Service (AePS) are eligible for participating in the daily and weekly lucky draws.
These lucky draws are being held at Digi-Dhan Melas across the country. 40 such Digi-Dhan Melas have been held across the country since 25th December, 2016 till date. Over 100 Digi-Dhan Melas will be held across the country to inculcate digital payment among the people. By 1st February, the exercise has covered cities from 21 States and 4 UTs. The venue for the upcoming Digi-Dhan Melas is as follows-
| Date | State | City |
| 3.2.17 | Andhra Pradesh | Vishakhapatnam |
| 4.2.17 | Bihar | Gaya |
| 5.2.17 | Gujarat | Surat |
| 6.2.17 | Rajasthan | Jodhpur |
| 7.2.17 | Meghalaya | Shillong |
| 8.2.17 | Rajasthan | Kota |
| 9.2.17 | Jharkhand | Dhanbad |
| 10.2.17 | Karnataka | Mysore |
| 11.2.17 | Kerala | Thiruvanathapuram |
| 12.2.17 | Daman & Diu | Diu |
| 13.2.17 | Maharashtra | Nagpur |
| 14.2.17 | Mizoram | Aizwal |
| 15.2.17 | Chhattisgarh | Jagdalpur |
| 16.2.17 | Tamilnadu | Chennai |
| 17.2.17 | Telengana | Warangal |
| 18.2.17 | Haryana | Hissar |
| 19.2.17 | Gujarat | Bharuch |
| 20.2.17 | Andhra Pradesh | Guntur |
| 21.2.17 | Tripura | Agartala |
| 22.2.17 | Jharkhand | Jamshedpur |
| 23.2.17 | Nagaland | Kohima |
| 24.2.17 | Haryana | Faridabad |
| 25.2.17 | Karnataka | Hubli-Dharwad |
| 26.2.17 | Kerala | Kozikode |
| 27.2.17 | Madhya Pradesh | Jabalpur |
| 28.2.17 | Maharashtra | Nashik |
Background:
Lucky Grahak Yojana and Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojana awards were launched in New Delhi on December 25, 2016 by Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Arun Jaitley and Union Minister of Electronics & Information Technology and Law & Justice, Ravi Shankar Prasad to incentivize digital payments. The lucky draws have been planned at over 100 Digidhan Melas spread across the country in 100 different cities till April 14, 2017. The highlights of the Schemes are as follows-
- All transactions done by consumers and merchants from November 9, 2016 till April 14, 2017 will be eligible for winning prize under the scheme.
- All such transactions irrespective of the fact whether it has won daily / weekly prize, will be eligible for Mega Draw to be conducted on April 14, 2017.
- Three Mega prizes for consumers worth Rs. 1 crore, Rs 50 lakh and Rs 25 lakh.
- For merchants too, there would be three mega prizes worth Rs. 50 lakh, Rs. 25 lakh and Rs. 12 lakh.
- The draw of winners are presented at different centres on each day by the senior officials of NPCI in the presence of senior minister from GoI, representatives of NITI Aayog and general public.
- Schemes have total outlay of Rs. 340 crore of which – Rs. 300 crores would be spent on consumers and merchants while the remaining Rs. 40 crore on awareness and publicity.
- Total winners under the scheme are expected to be over 18.75 lakh.