One nation, one ration card possible because of Digital India: PM Modi

Interacting with beneficiaries on the completion of six years of the Digital India mission, the PM said direct benefit transfer had helped send money to crores of people

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that the government’s flagship Digital India mission had enabled implementation of the one nation, one ration card scheme and helped ease access to services for millions of people during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (File photo)

Interacting with beneficiaries on the completion of six years of the Digital India mission, the PM said direct benefit transfer had helped send money to crores of people. “Using UPI, people do transactions worth nearly ₹5 lakh every day,” he said. “The one nation, one ration card scheme which was made possible under the mission has especially helped migrant workers.”

The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed all states and Union territories to implement the scheme by July 31. The top court has also issued a slew of directions, asking the Central government to distribute dry ration among migrant workers free of charge until the pandemic situation subsides.

The PM added that the mission had helped farmers sell their produce directly, and even allowed the government to provide them money directly into their accounts. “Digital India scheme has empowered common people,” he said. “This is a great example of minimum government, maximum governance.”

Modi also highlighted the success of schemes introduced under Digital India mission, such as Digilocker, the government’s app to store documents, and Aarogya Setu, the Covid-19 tracing app.

“India’s digital solutions are of interest across the world, there are many countries that want to emulate the country’s vaccination platform, CoWIN,” he said.

Referring to the recently released rankings in UN’s ITU global cyber security agenda, the prime minister said that India’s commitment to data privacy security had increased by leaps and bounds. “In the recently released ranking, India is now number 10 in terms of cybersecurity across the world,” he said.

“Without access to cheap data plans, what would have happened to millennials,” he said, adding, “Crores of people have benefitted from online education to medicine, and last mile delivery of medical services.”