Develop mindset to go digital: Union Minister

Stressing the need to develop the mindset to go digital, Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathy Raju today said only through modernisation the country will benefit and dreamscan be materialised. In his inaugural address at the second 'Digi Dhan Mela' in Kerala here to create awareness on various digital payment options, he said here 'We need to, as people, develop the mindset to become digital'.
"If we look at the economies throughout the world, India is a country where cash was used most as liquid form of transactions," he said.
Pointing that Kerala was already cent per cent Aadhar complaint and every family had bank account, he said there "is need to modernise to get the dreams of our future materialised. It is in the interest of all to modernise and the country will benefit," he said.

In his special address, Minister of state for External Affairs, M J Akbar, said the digital technology was going to be led increasingly by women and it gave them economicempowerment which they never had. "A revolution is happening in the country despite a profusion of skeptics. Today also the country is pock marked by people who are regressive, particularly a political party which is a champion of regression," he said. Technology does not belong to any particular religion, caste or language and was a means to develop all. "It is a great unifier," he said.
Stating that all cash was not black money, but all black money was cash, he said only one per cent of Indians pay income tax.

"It is the rich who have refused to honour their obligation to the poor... Tax is a legitimate transfer of wealth from those who have to those who do not have," he said. Thanks to demonetisation, banks have money which would help in its utilisation for various anti-poverty programmes of the government, he said.

Kerala IT Secretary M Sivsankar was among others who addressed the gathering.
The Union Ministry of Information of Information Technology organised the mela in association with the Kerala State Electronics and IT department.
All stakeholders--Banks, Public sector oil companies, telecom companies were among those who took part.

The event is aimed at familiarising various digital payment systems, including mobile wallets, to the citizens through real time transactions.
The 'DigiDhan Abhiyan' aims to cover two lakh common service centres (CSCs) across rural areas and enable them to become digital financial education centres, it was stated.