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India’s love for cash hinders move to digital economy
or many citizens living in rural areas, cash still remains the bedrock of daily existence because of a lack of facilities.
India’s love for cash hinders move to digital economy
A chunk of India's rural population is still dependent on cash.
India's transformation to a fully digital economy to take longer than expected
With lack of infrastructure, rural India is still dependent on cash
Indians have historically preferred cash over digital payments
By Reuters: India's dependency on cash may slow the country's transition to digital payments despite large numbers of internet and mobile phone users.
For many citizens living in rural areas, cash is still the bedrock of daily existence because of a lack of facilities.
Sudhir Shinde, a farmer from Satara district in India's western state of Maharashtra says he withdraws more money from his bank than required as the money vending machine in his village has not been operational for months.
"If I need money urgently, I must make a 32 kilometre (20 mile) trip to Satara town, which is not always possible," said the 37-year-old sugarcane farmer Shinde, while buying fertilisers for his winter-sown crops.
"I always keep money in hand assuming family emergencies like hospitalization or any other such urgent requirements".
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi backed a shock ruling in November 2016 to outlaw 86% of cash in circulation to target undeclared "black money" and fight corruption.
The demonetization got rid of old 500 and 1,000 rupee banknotes and Modi said that would boost the country's digital economy, unearth unaccounted wealth and reduce the use of cash.
But 99.3 per cent of the junked currency is back in the banking system, suggesting that only a miniscule portion was unaccounted illicit money or fake currency notes, and India's addiction to cash is now, perhaps stronger than ever.
One of the key objectives of the note ban was to discourage the use of cash, but India continues to see a surge in currency in circulation even as economic growth has slowed to a six-year low.
Central bank data shows that since the controversial demonetisation gambit, currency in circulation has grown, rising 17 per cent to 21.1 trillion rupees ($295.7 billion) as of the end of March 2019.
The ratio of currency in circulation to GDP has risen to 11.23 per cent as of March 2019 up from 8.69 per cent at the end of March 2017.
To be sure, digital transactions have grown, rising 19.5 per cent in value in 2018/19 and 22.2 per cent in 2017/18, the Reserve Bank of India said in a report.
On whether India's efforts to move to electronic payments has been slow, the central bank noted what it said in a statement last week.
To promote digital payment, the RBI has established "state of the art payment systems that are efficient, convenient, safe, secure and affordable" that has resulted in a rapid growth in retail digital payment systems.
Meanwhile, it will promote the use of e-payments for parking, fuel and toll collection, and has ordered banks not to charge bank customers for online transactions in the National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) system from January 2020.
Anecdotal evidence, however, suggests people in Asia's third-largest economy prefer cash for various reasons, including to avoid paying higher taxes after a national sales tax was implemented in mid-2017 and higher charges from retailers.
Smaller stores that don't enjoy high volume sales often charge customers extra, to make up for what they must pay the service partners for electronic
Nigerian Opposition Groups Protest Early Presidential Results
Timothy Obiezu
Demonstrators accusing the election commission of irregularities and disenfranchising voters make a protest in downtown Abuja, Nigeria Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023.
Demonstrators accusing the election commission of irregularities and disenfranchising voters make a protest in downtown Abuja, Nigeria Tuesday,
Print
ABUJA, NIGERIA —
Nigerian opposition groups have called Saturday's presidential election a "sham" that should be overturned as their supporters protested in the capital. The electoral commission says ballots show ruling party candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the lead.
About 100 protesters, mostly women and youth, chanted as they held up placards less than 600 meters away from the national collation center in Abuja.
Barricades set up by security forces blocked them from getting closer to the venue where Nigeria's Electoral Commission, INEC, announced the results of last weekend's presidential elections for a third day.
The Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission, Yakubu Mahmood, displays a results sheet to the media during the presentation of final results of Nigeria's General and Presidential election, in Abuja, Feb. 27, 2023,
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Early Results in Nigeria's Tight Polls Meet Resistance From Political Parties
As of late Tuesday, INEC had announced full results from two-thirds of Nigeria’s 36 states. The candidate for the ruling All Progressives Congress or APC party, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, led the race with more than seven million votes.
Tinubu was followed by Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party, who had over six million votes, and Peter Obi of the Labor Party, with more than five million.
But protesters like Moses Paul say the results have been manipulated.
"The results collation is fraudulent, it's false because we have seen many cases where people are disenfranchised," said Paul. "INEC materials arrived late in many places where thousands of people had already left, ballots were snatched, certain political groups told other political groups to get out."
The election was marked by widespread delays, operational issues with the voting machines, violence and coercion in some areas.
Many observers including the EU mission have said the voting lacked transparency and fell below expectations.
On Monday, ten political party representatives walked out of the collation center after calling for the vote count to be suspended, alleging irregularities and discrepancies.
INEC refused to do so. Supporters of the ruling APC also protested in Abuja saying INEC must be allowed to complete the process.
"INEC has done well in the process," said Lawal. "If you had such evidence, audio-visual evidence, of violence, of distortions, it's too minute to affect the outcome of this election."
This is the first time INEC has used the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System in a national election.
The system, in theory, allows for real time monitoring and uploading of results from the polling units to INEC's server, but in most cases that did not happen.
European Union chief observer Barry Andrews spoke to VOA Monday about the mission’s preliminary observations.
“The technology that promised so much did not meet expectations," said Andrews. "There were significant problems about uploading results, there were problems with BVAS facial recognition and recognition of fingerprints. There was lack of security in the configuration of polling booths, so, unfortunately, this sort of undermined the trust and the integrity of the electoral session."
Final results from the presidential and parliamentary elections are not expected for at least another two days.
As more results are announced, experts say tensions may increase across Nigeria.
