New Delhi, Niti Aayog: In order to promote cashless transaction, the Niti Aayog has planned an incentive scheme, a a huge prize money of Rs one crore prize money, to those who use digital payments systems the most as the government steps up measures to push electronic transactions.

It has asked the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) to conceptualize and launch the programme to incentivize digital payments. Sources said Rs 125 crore would be made available from the National Financial Inclusion Fund. NPCI is an umbrella organization for all retail payments systems and has ten promoter banks -- SBI, Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, Bank of India, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Citibank and HSBC.

What Is Niti Aayog; NITI Aayog' (Hindi: नीति आयोग), or the National Institution for Transforming India is a Government of India policy think-tank established by the Narendra Modi government to replace the Planning Commission. The stated aim for NITI Aayog's creation is to foster involvement and participation in the economic policy-making process by the State Governments of India.The emphasis is on bottom-up approach and make the country to move towards cooperative federalism . The Union Government of India announced the formation of NITI Aayog on 1 January 2015, and the first meeting was held on 8 February 2015. The Prime Minister serves as the Ex-officio chairman.

How does it works;

The scheme targets people living in villages and small cities and encourages them to move towards digital transactions. "There will be quarterly draw of transaction IDs for the grand prize of Rs one crore. The focus will be on poor, lower middle class and small businessman.

There will also be weekly draw of the transaction IDs and winner will get Rs 10 Lakh.

There has been tremendous increase in both volume of digital payment and the government wnt to make this work more. All consumers and merchants using digital payments such as USSD, AEPS, UPI and RuPay cards will be eligible. For merchants, transactions on POS machines will be considered. The scheme will launched by end of this month and those who have used digital payment systems after November 8 will be eligible.