At a time when almost entire populace of India is having sleepless nights, the people of Akodara, a small hamlet in Sabarkantha district in North Gujarat, are living a carefree life.
There are no serpentine queues near the bank or ATM and no lines of worry on the foreheads of the villagers. They are completely insulated by the impact of the decision taken by the Modi government to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes on November 8, 2016.
“For any financial transaction of over Rs 10, I don’t need cash. I simply use mobile banking and transfer the money to buy anything, including grocery. I even get an online transfer of my earnings into my bank account directly when I sell milk to the local dairy,” says Piyush Patel, a local.
Akodara, which is roughly 50 km from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home town Vadnagar, gained the distinction of being India’s first ‘Digital Village’ last year when a private bank, along with the state government, covered the village under digital banking programme.