Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/India-effects-of-demonetization-this-Digital-Village-at-Akodara-is-blooming/articleshow/55668226.cms">I recently visited India's first digital village and while it is the perfect model for a cashless society</a>, it is also a lesson in digital adoption. 
It bunks the myth that you need to live in a city to live a digitized lifestyle. 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/ICICI-Bank-to-transform-100-villages-into-Digital-Villages-in-100-days/articleshow/55666437.cms">ALSO READ: ICICI Bank to transform 100 villages into ‘Digital Villages’ in 100 days</a> 
 <keyword id="3896834" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="akodara">Akodara</keyword>, <keyword id="6354766" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Gujarat">Gujarat</keyword> is not just famous for enabling <keyword id="322793" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Cashless">cashless</keyword> transactions but also for how villagers use technology to make their everyday life easier. 
 
Let's show you how it was made possible.

I visited the cashless Gujarat village- Akodara that everyone’s
talking about, and here’s my takeaway

Can you imagine turning one Indian village digital every day? <keyword id="6653" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="ICICI-bank">ICICI Bank</keyword> claims it will do it. 
 ICICI <keyword id="6355272" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bank">Bank</keyword>, today announced that it will transform 100 villages into Digital Villages through a number of measures. 
 
These villages will enable villagers to use digital channels for banking and payments transactions. There, villagers will be able to open bank accounts using Aadhar-based e-KYC and make cashless payments to retail stores through a unique SMS/USSD-based mobile solution. 
 Additionally, ICICI Bank in association with <keyword id="339601" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="ICICI-Foundation">ICICI Foundation</keyword> will impart vocational training to nearly 10,000 underprivileged villagers, especially women, to help them earn a sustainable livelihood. The bank will also extend credit facilities to the trained villagers in a bid to boost self-employment opportunities in the villages. 
 This ambitious move is inspired by the success of India’s first digital village, created by ICICI Bank at <keyword id="3896834" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="akodara">Akodara</keyword> in <keyword id="48360" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sabarkantha">Sabarkantha</keyword> district of Gujarat. Ms. <keyword id="45875" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Chanda-Kochhar">Chanda Kochhar</keyword>, MD &amp; CEO, ICICI Bank said , “We strongly feel that technology can play an important role in putting development on a fast lane.” 
 
The bank will create a cashless ecosystem at these villages, provide vocational training to 10,000 villagers in first 100 days and offer them credit linkages so that the villagers can start their own business ventures. 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/MobiKwik-launches-a-light-lite-app-to-integrate-all-Indians/articleshow/55662642.cms">ALSO READ: MobiKwik launches a 'lite' app for seamless transactions, even on basic connection</a> 
 
ICICI Bank will use <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/EXCLUSIVE-Inside-Paytm-the-first-24-hours-after-demonetization/articleshow/55581182.cms">tablet-based banking and Aadhar-based e-KYC </a>to help villagers open accounts in few hours without submitting physical documents. All adults in the villages will have saving accounts, which will be linked to <keyword id="155319" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Aadhar">Aadhar</keyword> to enable direct transfer of government benefits into these accounts. There will be dedicated branch and ATM of ICICI Bank to service these accounts. 
 
The bank will provide a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Is-your-credit-card-a-debt-sentence/articleshow/55617326.cms">unique SMS &amp; USSD based mobile service</a> which will facilitate the villagers to transfer funds, receive alerts &amp; statements and make payments to retail stores by using their mobile phones. This SMS banking will be available in regional languages and will function on basic mobile phones. The Bank will also set up end-to-end merchant infrastructure that will enable the retailers at the village to accept mobile based payments. 
 
The bank will also create a cashless, digital payment ecosystem for the predominant commercial activity of these villages and set up Point-of-Sale (POS) machines at seed and fertilizer outlets for cashless transactions using Rupay cards. 
 All this is being done in the wake of <keyword id="6362150" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="demonetization">demonetization</keyword> when the country's villages are suffering the most. As someone who saw how Akodara's citizens were reaping benefits from the digitization, this move is not only lauded but necessary right now.

ICICI
Bank to transform 100 villages into ‘Digital Villages’ in 100 days

When I was told about the ‘ICICI <keyword id="50691" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Digital">Digital</keyword> Village’ at <keyword id="3896834" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="akodara">Akodara</keyword> in <keyword id="48360" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sabarkantha">Sabarkantha</keyword> district of <keyword id="6354766" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Gujarat">Gujarat</keyword>, I was skeptical, because of two reasons: one, How is a ‘digital village’ possible with the lack of infrastructure? and two, when the cities are still cash economies with structured formal sectors, how can a single village be the exception? 
 
My answers were answered on a quick day trip to the village where we actually saw cashless transactions take place smoothly, similar to how things take place in the city. 
 The village was dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister <keyword id="6354477" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Narendra-Modi">Narendra Modi</keyword> in January 2015 to commemorate <keyword id="233016" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="ICICI-Group">ICICI Group</keyword>’s 60 years in India. 
This was done to enable villagers to use technology in various aspects of life including banking, payments, education, among others. 
 
Here, Wi-Fi connectivity is available across the village where transactions as low as Rs. 10 take place on phone through SMS and the Internet. The wifi tower stands tall in the middle of the village. 
 
The objective for this was simple; to show that technology can be used to eliminate barriers that separate rural and urban India. 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/ICICI-Bank-to-transform-100-villages-into-Digital-Villages-in-100-days/articleshow/55666437.cms">ALSO READ: ICICI Bank to transform 100 villages into ‘Digital Villages’ in 100 days</a> 
 
So how was it done? 
 First, every adult villager was encouraged to open a <keyword id="6355272" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bank">bank</keyword> account to enable savings and a cashless habit. 
The Bank uses tab banking to open savings bank account which allows customers to open accounts without submitting physical documents. The accounts are being serviced by a dedicated branch and an ATM which did not have a queue when we visited it! 
 
Various cashless transactions are facilitated through Debit Cards, SMS Banking, Online Banking, Cashless Payment Processing and other modes. 
 
The villagers' accounts are also being linked to Aadhar to enable direct transfer of government benefits into savings accounts. 
 
How is it enabled? 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/MobiKwik-launches-a-light-lite-app-to-integrate-all-Indians/articleshow/55662642.cms">The cashless economy needed end-to-end payment solution </a>leveraging Rupay cards and SMS banking at the village shops, at the market for the sale of agri-produce and at the cooperative society for sale of milk. All of that was done with the help of the local government in association with the bank. 
 From enabling farmers to access the latest information on prices of agricultural commodities on <keyword id="35258" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="NCDEX">NCDEX</keyword> to establishing a water treatment plant to provide clean water to the villagers, all the resources were matched in level to the digital offering to create overall development. 
 
The result? 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/EXCLUSIVE-Mobikwik-is-willing-to-partner-with-e-wallets-like-Paytm/articleshow/55667167.cms">All earning adults carry minimum cash, get daily payments in their bank accounts</a> and pay instantly for any service. 
What technology has done here is magnificent, if only the same model could’ve been implemented everywhere in the country overnight, to ease the pains of what this unplanned demonetization move has caused, particularly in the rural areas.

India is struggling with the effects of
demonetization while this Digital Village is blooming

You Searched For "akodara" and got 3 results

I visited the cashless Gujarat village- Akodara that everyone’s talking about, and here’s my takeaway

Tanya Dubey

ICICI Bank to transform 100 villages into ‘Digital Villages’ in 100 days

Tanya Dubey

India is struggling with the effects of demonetization while this Digital Village is blooming

Tanya Dubey

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides