Akodara: India’s first Digital Village

Akodara, a small village in Sabarkantha district of Gujarat has earned the distinction of becoming the country’s first digital village. The village with a small community of 1200 people has gone completely cashless. The village was adopted and developed by the ICICI foundation as a digitised village. All transactions in the village be it a transaction of only Rs.10 or Rs 10,000, all are carried out through digital modes like SMS, net-banking or debit cards. As a result, the union government’s demonetisation move did not impact the people of Akodara as it did on the rest of the country.

Cashless Economy is when the flow of cash within an economy is non-existent and all transactions are carried through electronic channels such as credit and debit cards, electronic clearing etc.