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Notice (8): Undefined variable: urlPrefix [APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8]latest-news-updates/getting-cash-transfers-out-of-a-jan-dhan-aadhaar-mobile.html"/> LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Getting cash transfers out of a JAM -Jean Drèze and Reetika Khera | Im4change.org
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Getting cash transfers out of a JAM -Jean Drèze and Reetika Khera

-The Hindu

For effective cash relief in response to the COVID-19 crisis, the government must think beyond the Jan Dhan Yojana

For some years now, the so-called JAM trinity (Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile) has been propounded as a dream cash-transfer infrastructure for India. The term “trinity” itself gives a sense of the faith and fervour this project sought to inspire (why not “trio”?). It was born in chapter 3 of the Economic Survey 2015, titled “Wiping every tear from every eye: The JAM number trinity solution”. This early JAM promo humbly concluded that “nirvana today seems within reach”. The same lyrical tone can be found in the following year’s Economic Survey, where JAM’s virtues were praised once again.

An illusion and its fading

What JAM really means, in practical terms, is conveniently vague. The original formulation, in 2015, mentioned two possible incarnations of the trinity: mobile banking and post office payments. The second option never made much headway, perhaps because it did not have enough scope for private profit. So Aadhaar-enabled mobile banking became the supreme goal. In January 2017, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant predicted the imminent demise of all cash-transfer paraphernalia other than mobiles: “... my view is that in the next two-and-a-half years, India will make all its debit cards, credit cards, all ATM machines all POS machines totally irrelevant… India will make this jump because every Indian will be doing his transaction just by using his thumb in thirty seconds...” This utopia was happily embraced by a familiar bandwagon of Aadhaar champions, software businesses, digital-payment companies, fintech wizards, and embedded economists.

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