An Introduction to Cashless India

A cashless India is the first step towards making the dream of digital India a reality. In this
cashless India essay, we will be talking about the meaning of ‘cashless’, the different alternatives
for our monetary system, and the disadvantages and advantages of a country going fully cashless
and digital in its economy. The following cashless India essay in English is for students studying
in class 5 and above. The language here has been kept simple for a better understanding of young
students. This essay on the cashless economy in India would enable young students to write an
essay on the cashless economy in India on their own.
As we know that cashless India is the new India and with the decision made by our honourable
prime minister to demonetize money used previously, this concept of going cashless has become
very popular. Although there are some disadvantages of going cashless, along with that there are
more benefits as well. In this essay, you will know about everything that will help you to get
better information about the concept of India going cashless.
Essay on Cashless India
On the evening of November 8, 2016, at 8 P.M., Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India
announced the demonetization of 500 and 1000 rupees notes in India. That historic decision had
many reasons. One of the reasons was laying the stepping stone towards the dream of a cashless
India.
The traditional form of monetary transactions happens with the exchange of physical hard cash
between people. Cashless India is going to make it almost redundant. This idea has got a huge
amount of push due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, given the concerns with the exchange
of physical cash. There are a lot of advantages to going cashless. Remember that everything has
a positive as well as a negative aspect. It is not that there won't be any disadvantages of going
cashless but the thing is that you tend to find the ways by which you can prevent these
disadvantages from harming you. All that you need to do is be more careful. As we all know,
prevention is always better than cure.
First of all, let’s understand the meaning of a cashless economy. A cashless economy is one in
which the liquid transactions through the system happen with the exchange of plastic currency or
through digital currency. ATM debit and credit cards are plastic currency and online payments
come under digital currency. The advent of blockchain technology has redefined the meaning of
a cashless economy through bitcoins. A decentralized system of finance is defined by the
concept of bitcoins, but we are not focusing on that in this particular essay on cashless India. We
are more focused to discuss why India needs to go cashless and what are the benefits that will
come with India taking on this new change. This essay provides you with information on the
advantages and disadvantages of the digital payment system also. It is not that you are not going
to face any problem in online transactions, you must have heard that a coin has two sides and just
like that, this topic of cashless India also has both pros and cons. Let’s move on to the pros and
cons of a digital payment system.
We can see the Three Main Advantages of Cashless India.
 Reduction of Black Money
Black money is the money that is earned but not accounted for in taxes. That money is
hidden by people from paying taxes. This black money is an illegal instrument in an
economy that is capable of reducing a government down to bankruptcy. The cashless
economy will ensure there’s no black money since unlike hard cash digital money cannot
be hidden. At least there is no way yet that could make the hiding possible. Digital money
enables governments to track all transactions in an economy that helps keep the income
 authentic and transparent. The technology behind the digital economy has to be well
updated and sturdy though.
 Transparency
India has corruption inbred in its system starting from the ministerial level to the
watchman level. And it exists due to the lack of transparency in our monetary system. In
an economy that is as big as India, transparency is a huge issue. We have learned of
scandals like the CWG or 2g scams or the Rafale Jet scams over the years, and these
scams are a result of the lack of transparency in transactions. It’s a shame that a small
cashless economy in India essay would never do justice to the topic since it will never be
enough to write about all of the corruption scandals India has had since its independence.
Corruptions of this scale could be brought down to a large extent if we could achieve that
dream of a cashless economy throughout. And it's possible because the origin and
endpoint of a transaction could easily be tracked in a cashless economy and that’s the
biggest advantage.
There are Two Major Disadvantages of Cashless India.
 Online Theft
With the improving technology every day, there’s a rampant increase in online cheating
and fraud episodes. If the government is unable to achieve sturdy and not-possible-to-
hack digital systems, in a country like India with a 135 crore population, it is completely
impossible to make the economy cashless. People are still afraid of making big
transactions online after watching the reports of online thefts on national news channels.
Infrastructure, or the Lack of it
Not just the government infrastructure, it requires infrastructure on an individual level too.
A gadget or a smartphone, data connectivity, and electricity for charging the phones
regularly are the basic requirements for making online transactions possible. These are
privileges that exist mostly in urban India and most of rural India is still deprived of these
privileges. The government should first fix this before even dreaming of making a
cashless India possible.
The Government of India took the whole country by storm by announcing the
demonetization on 8th November 2016. 500- and 1000-rupees notes were no longer legal tender.
This move was aimed at getting rid of the black money in the economy that was largely used to
fund criminals and terrorists and formed a parallel economy. The acute shortage of cash led to
long queues outside ATMs and banks trying to withdraw cash or exchange notes. This was all to
initiate the fruition of a dream of cashless India.
With the enormous amount of technological revolutions happening, it is close to impossible to
find people without a smartphone in these times. Almost every citizen possesses a smartphone.
The ease of transaction through interfaces like GooglePay or PhonePe or Paytm has never been
more seamless than this. The Indian government has also introduced interfaces like UPI or
Unified Payments Interface for hassle-free digital transactions that are fully cashless.
Conclusion
In recent years, we have been asked to be in very less contact with each other. This is because of
the communicable diseases of Covid-19 that have seen an adverse effect throughout India. For
this reason, online payments have recently been the most popular means of transaction. The
money will directly get transferred to the account of the user from our account; all you need to
do is just download the app that you can use for the transaction.
In the end, the demonetization step became crucial to start a cashless economy in the country. It
has paved the way towards an economy in India that is defined by greater transparency and
convenience and ease in monetary transactions.