Vol. 3, Issue 4, Part B (2017)

Abstract
The recent step of declaring the existing stock of Rs.1000 and Rs.500 notes as illegal tender has addressed multiple issues with one stroke. Most importantly, it has straight away wiped out most of the illegal cash accumulated over a number of years from the system. Cashless economy is generally corruption free; there are lots of benefits for being cashless. Cost of handling cash is high; it is in the favor of economies to go cashless. No liquid money is used by the society. The Prime Minister has urged farmers to embrace cashless transactions. In his monthly radio address, Mann Ki Baat, he said: "I want to salute the farmers who are standing tall in difficult times." Several bodies in the agriculture sector have come forward to lend a helping hand. "IFFCO has decided to spearhead the campaign in all our marketing zones located across the country to sensitize our farmers about the use of online and digital payment gateways and also educate them about the benefits of going cashless. Hon’ble Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare also held several meetings with representatives of IFFCO, KRIBHCO, AIRTEL, NCUIE, NCDC, NABARD, AMUL, Mother Dairy, State Cooperative banks and 35 interstate Cooperative banks attended in a meeting decided to promote awareness programs, trainings and develop infrastructure in e-banking across the country. In this meeting, through presentations by NITI Ayog, emphasis was given to use prepaid cards, USSD, (Unstructured Supplementary service Daa) Adhaar Enabled e-payment system, UPI,(Unified Payments Interface) E-wallet, POS (Point of Sales) across the country to strengthen the infrastructure and promote activities for cashless transactions. At present, all Hon’ble Minsters of State are making field visits where not only training and awareness programs are being conducted in addition to that, even the College Students and staff volunteers also actively involving and meeting the farmers, rural Business centers like Mandis, Village markets, Regulated Markets and households to activate mobile banking services in their devices to carry the cashless transaction and Cashless payments to promote Agricultural activities.