Thursday, December 28, 2017

Promotion of Digital Payments.

The day had begun at a quarter past 4, had gone through the chores and I was ready when Antony had come at the gate with his auto rickshaw. There wasn't much of a queue at the ticket counter but the newspaper vendor was missing. Hence, I'd nothing to read except for the What'sApp messages - a very poor substitute! The train was 33' late as the early morning train from Madras was late. Probably it was because of this late start of the train, that we didn't have to wait enroute for crossings and overtaking!

I was the first to reach the venue followed by Aniyan and we were kept engaged by CG Vasudevan Nair chettan. He's still sprightly at 83 years but is now grappling with a medical problem of reduced Hb at 7.3 and is under treatment. He makes it a point to attend any programme of the Foundation because of his loyalty and love towards PN Panicker.

Maman and the others were caught up in a series of traffic snarls on the MC Road and eventually fetched up at 1200 hrs. The meeting got off to a start soon after. It was to chalk out the programme for the promotion of digital payments by enabling small scale merchants - including the regular 'chanawala' - on BHIM application covering the town of Kottayam, for starters! The objectives were clearly worked out viz.:-

   (a) To enable about 2,000 merchants, of Kottayam town, on BHIM App.
   (b) To inform urban and suburban merchants about government policies and digital financial
         options available to them.
   (c) To enable merchants to access and use electronic payment system(EPS) such as BHIM.
   (d) To sensitise and enable merchants at all levels to use BHIM App for making transactions.
   (e) Create awareness in rural India through workshops and awareness drives.

The target group covered under the programme would be:-

      * Shopkeepers
      * Distributors.
      * Grocery shop owners
      * Hawkers
      * Small traders and
      * Artisans.

The basic fear in every small time trader is that by resorting to digital payments, they'd get into the ambit of the taxman's eye has to be removed - this was endorsed by the organising committee and shall be done! The steps and necessary action, along with milestones to be followed, for conducting the ten day workshop commencing 15 Jan '18 were drawn out and the duties were entrusted to individuals/groups.

After a delayed lunch, some more of discussions and a cup of tea, I took off for the railway station to board the Kanyakumari-Bangalore Express at 1700 hrs. The reservation coaches were jam packed with people. Had disembarked at Thrissur, caught a bus to Guruvayur and reached home by 2130 hrs. Lekha had, in the meanwhile, gone to Palakkad to get her dad's house cleaned and secured and had returned only an hour earlier.



Tailpiece.

Mohanachandran's medical bulletin.

"In ICU........no fever now........on antibiotics.   

No comments:

Post a Comment