Cashless Village Palnar: Technological Process Innovation

Cashless Village Palnar:
Technological Process
Innovation
Aaditya Vasnik
Aditya Kalra
Kailash K
Sanchit Mehra
Sphoorty D.
Yukta Keshri
About Palnar
• Palnar village is located in the Kuakonda Tehsil, Dantewada district in
Chhattisgarh. It has good connectivity with the block head quarter Kuwakonda
(15 km) and with National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC)
township.
• Population: 1962 and Number of household: 342
• Prior to this initiative Palnar was a Maoist affected area, hence it was cut-off
from the state. It had no banks/ATMs and there was no internet accessibility as
well
• Villagers were required to take permission from Maoists to enter and go outside
of the village
• Residents of Palnar village, and even posted security personnel needed to travel
over 10 km to use an ATM, and about 34 km to Dantewada to reach a bank.
• Demonetization made Digital Financial Literacy extremely important, and
Palnar was chosen as a model to promote cashless transactions. Dantewada District
Kickstarting the innovation
• On 8 November 2016, the Government of India announced the demonetisation of all
₹500 and ₹1,000 banknotes of the Mahatma Gandhi Series
• Villagers were dependant on two buses to go Dantewada, about 48 km away, to reach the
nearest bank and exchange their notes,often missing their daily wages.
• Dantewada’s District Collector, Saurabh Kumar, IAS, saw the financial chasm in the
region and saw digitization as the most sustainable option.
• The Essar group, coincidentally, had an optical fiber line that passed through the region
• As part of their Corporate Social Responsibility, the group chose to extend its network to
provide connectivity to the village.
Technology
Enablement
• BSNL was engaged to establish a Wi-Fi hotspot zone

where the weekly market takes place. In 2016,
connectivity was established, with the entire shopping
area of Palnar being equipped with Free Internet
Service
• Conventional POS machines were replaced with
EzeTap machines. Micro ATMs were also set up for
remote payments through Aadhaar Enabled Payment
System (AEPS), RuPay card, Digi Dhan, UPI (BHIM)
etc.
Handholding support
• The administration procured fibre and bandwidth from Essar Steel under its CSR to
create a free wi-fi zone of two and half square km.
• There was No cellular connectivity as on 2017
• Administration made efforts to ensure that every Jandhan account holder received
RuPay cards, and that Aadhar seeding is done.
• Through the support of banks and public representation, the administration ensured
the distribution of RuPay cards to bank account holders. Field staff was employed to
obtain Aadhar details and NOCs from un-seeded accounts, and teams of bank officials
trained shopkeepers on the use of Ezetap devices.
Awareness generation
• Native language was Gondi and very few people could speak Hindi
• A Digital Army made up of volunteers was set up to attract local people.
Digital Doots spread the message of digitization and created awareness about
cashless transactions
• Volunteers spread awareness about transaction taking through Aadhar card
and Biometric finger-print identification
Awareness Generation
• Shops in the region double as

micro-ATMs, permitting Aadhaar-based
withdrawals and deposits.
• Regular meetings were convened for public
representatives, shop owners and general
public of Palnar to convince them on the
benefits of digital transactions.
• Public representatives later undertook the
responsibility of convincing surrounding
villagers through meetings during hot
bazars.
Impact
• This initiative has successfully

empowered villagers, and made them
confident in transacting digitally
• Digital literacy in the village has
increased and the community has moved
towards making cashless transactions.
• Now, cashless transactions are a
common part of community activities
such as marriages, folk dances, sports
activities, etc.
• 1,062 cashless transactions amounting
to Rs. 1.22 lakh have been carried out
(Old Data)
Result and Learnings
• When all stakeholders come together, possibilities are endless
• Despite all the odds, the village managed to digitise
• To innovate, training, as received by Palnar residents, is the most
important
• Companies such as Essar must be mandated under CSR to address
“real” issues, as is the case here
• Self-reliance must be encouraged to get best results

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Cashless Village Palnar:

• BSNL was engaged to establish a Wi-Fi hotspot zone

• Shops in the region double as

• This initiative has successfully

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