Reduce black money through cashless transactions, says Narendra Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi called on banks to work towards a cash less society to reduce the black money circulating in the economy. Modi said, "I wish that there should be a competition among Indian banks to have more and more cashless transactions. This will help in keeping a track of all the transactions and reduce black money that circulates in the country."

Modi said people in India had a propensity towards saving, but this was targeted towards gold. The challenge for banks is to assure people that a bank account would ensure easy access to their savings whenever required. He said if banks were able to do so, they could emerge as agents of social transformation.

He was speaking in Mumbai on the occasion of the dedication of ICICI's Digital Village to the Nation. The function also marked 60 years of the ICICI group. Noting that the experience of the ICICI group over the last sixty years would prove immensely useful to India's economic development in the years ahead, the Prime Minister urged ICICI Bank to prepare a vision of tangible goals which they would achieve by the time they celebrated the 75th anniversary of ICICI group. As an intermediate target, he also asked the bank to think of what goals they could achieve by 2022, the 75th anniversary of India's independence.

The Prime Minister urged ICICI Bank to adopt a social charter of such tangible goals. He said many times one institution takes the lead and others follow, generating momentum towards a good cause.

Chanda Kochhar, managing director and chief executive officer, ICICI Bank said, "We are proud to have converted Akodara in Gujarat from a village into a digital village. Our objective has been to show that technology can be used to eliminate barriers that separate rural and urban India. We hope that it will catalyse similar initiatives across the country and recreate rural India."

Governor of Maharashtra Vidyasagar Rao, Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, and MD & CEO of ICICI Bank were present on the occasion.