Is India ready to move towards Digital Economy?

I have said the same thing earlier that being digitised economy cannot be possible until and unless a better cost is involved for making the country to be digitilised.Most important thing is eduation about digital medium.Many people don't know how to use digital source for taking and making payment so literacy level of digitalisation also needed. So that people can think for other way or can choose other way instead of cash. Today people are more techno freak but they use most of the technology as a time pass manner. People don't use technology fruitfully.So this is a backward side of country for being not digitialised or will take much time to be digitilised.

Yes, according to me india is ready to move towards digital india. As from last month when demonetization happend the currency got band and their was a long que in the banks and atm and we all know today people don't have time to stand in que for hours and hours, and less time forced them to use their card as plastic money and made india cashless economy.now we can see mostly all shops either big or small have the card swaping machine or any online payment app through which money can be paid. even now a days vegetable vendor and small shreet vendor too have the paytm for the payment.
But still there are many people like farmers who dont have a bank account so it created a problem for them and it is observed that only 2% of people use card and plastic money for payments but its well said that little little things make a big difference .
so its just 2% now but this will be is more pecentage in the coming months as the two main reason for demonetization was remove corruption and make india digital economy so if we need to remove corruption india need to be  digitalised.
and for this revolution india is ready and it will soon be seen.

Digital transactions are better in almost every way. They are more convenient and they help government check corruption or tax evasion. It is imperative that India moves towards a cashless economy. In this context the demonetization ordered by the Modi government is a welcome move. But at the same time, there is also the stark reality of India. It is also true that Indian is not exactly ready for cashless future. There are various challenges due to which we can say that India is not ready and some of these challenges are as follow:
1) Majority of the Indian population still lack a card without which nothing is possible. To overcome this it is essential to spread awareness among the public so they can come to know about the safety measures.
2) Another major challenge is poor internet connectivity. It is most basic facility needed for digitalization. Even if there is internet connectivity than there the problem of poor connection arises which further result in inconvenience to the users.
3) In India at present there are no data privacy laws which make people uncomfortable to fully trust digital means.
4) Cyber Security is another serious issue which causes serious problem.

India is still far away from being completely digitalized even after these issues are resolved because it will take time for the public to get familiar.

Today if you see people standing in a line is not because they don't know if there is other way for making payment but because they are not habitual of making payment other than cash. Insecurity is also a big concern  for those people who don't accept digital medium because of that "INSECURITY" reason. On the other side only youth population maximally use the digital stage.Because current generation accept technologically changes easily as compared to old generation. Old generation checks out the pros and cons of anything before accepting anything.So this would take time to equate the level of understanding between younger and older generations.Because of that economy to become digital will take time.

The demonetization move by the Indian government would reduce the role of black money and will lead the country towards a digital economy but moving to a cashless system will take some time, this is a massive step towards fighting black money and digital economy, "I think, the move to cashless economy can't come soon to India. It is unfortunate that people are going through so much of a pain. But there is absolute no doubt that this is the right direction to go.

The sooner the economy moves to a digital economy there will be less wastage, more productivity, more evolution and less of a black economy.

I am not the one who is suffering and I am not on the street (for changing / depositing money). But if you look at it from a strategic perspective,  people who are outside India had complaint over the past 70 years that people just did not had the political will to do those things in India. Here comes a politician who first recognizes what is the right thing to do and has the courage of conviction to pull it off.

His (Prime Minister Narendra Modi's) focus on startups as engine of job growth, unfortunately for India is 70 years late. But at least he started the process. I wish the first prime minster of India had focused on entrepreneurs not with suspicion and distrust, but with confidence and trust.
this incremental trend putting disincentive to the cash economy is the right thing to do. Putting disincentives to use of cash in large transactions, political parties not accepting cash donations and rationalizing this stamp duty non-sense for property transactions, rationalizing tax structure to encourage people to be complaint would be helpful in fighting black economy.

The demonetisation move by the Indian government is a extraordinary move by our PM MODI JI in modern days politics. PEOPLE will be benefited in due course of time and our future generation will enjoy the benefits and would also reduce the role of blackmoney and will lead the country towards a digital economy but moving to a cashless system will take some time, a leading Indian-American entrepreneur has said. "This is a massive step (towards fighting blackmoney and digital economy). The foundation of which was laid by Aadhar, Jan Dhan Yojana and direct benefit transfer," Venkatesh Shukla, a venture capitalist and president of TiE Silicon Valley

I think, the move to cashless economy can't come soon to India. It is unfortunate that people are going through so much of a pain. But there is absolute no doubt that this is the right direction to go.
"The sooner the economy moves to a digital economy there will be less wastage, more productivity, more evolution and less of a black economy,"
"It (moving towards a cash less economy) would take a while, but infrastructure is in place,"I have not run into a single person who criticises this. I'm overwhelmingly in favour of this,"

"I am not the one who is suffering and I am not on the street (for changing / depositing money). But if you look at it from a strategic perspective... people who are outside India had complaint over the past 70 years that people just did not had the political will to do those things in India. "Here comes a politician who first recognises what is the right thing to do and has the courage of conviction to pull it off," .

"His (Prime Minister Narendra Modi's) focus on startups as engine of job growth, unfortunately for India is 70 years late. But at least he started the process. I wish the first prime minster of India had focused on entrepreneurs not with suspicion and distrust, but with confidence and trust,"

"This incremental trend putting disincentive to the cash economy is the right thing to do." Putting disincentives to use of cash in large transactions, political parties not accepting cash donations and rationalising this stamp duty non-sense for property transactions, rationalising tax structure to encourage people to be complaint would be helpful in fighting black economy.

Digital Economy refers to an economy that is based on digital computing technologies. Also called Internet Economy or Web Economy India is almost ready to move towards digital economy. Digital Economy is the branch of economics studying Zero Marginal Cost Intangible Good over the net. The vision of Digital India of the government is helping to empower each and every citizen to avail the benefits of Technology which will further lead to more innovations. But the reason I said almost is because, though, the merchants and consumers are very much adapting to Digitization or we can say digital transactions the question still lies that how reliable is this digital transitions is and it isn’t to change the mindset of Indians in a moment of click. Demonetization decision by Modi’s Government has pushed India more towards accepting Cashless transaction and towards digital economy. The best result of it will be that there will be comparatively more transparency which will lead to less corruption and less black money. In this economy, digital networking and communication infrastructures provides a global platform over which people and organization devise strategies, interact, communicate, collaborate and search information
The emergence of digital economy saves the precious time and physical space. The introduction of digital payment, digital libraries, digital medical records and expensive database, information can retrieved I few seconds as compared to traditional method of keeping records which requires lots of space in form of extensive files and storage space.
But the vision of Digital Economy is still far away. There is lack of monetary commitment in the beginning phase. There will be substantial amount of investment to be done to provide proper infrastructure and framework. Why, because there are people in rural areas of India who have little or no access to banks, or internet or any other organized financial sectors. There is much need to change the mindset of the people from moving into digital economy from cash. And at the same time we have create awareness for digitizing the economy. Government should allow free Internet training, free training on how to use mobile as their bank to people, especially in rural areas. It is important for us to understand and at the same time help people to understand the benefits of going Digital. Also, many fear that those business and countries who are reluctant to enter the digital economy may essentially be left behind in this rapid growing economy. So, having a Digital Economy is now a need of today’s era.

Is India ready to go cashless?

By announcing a ban on the old Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes and by putting a cap on withdrawals from banks and ATMs, Prime Minister Narendra Modi floated the idea of a cashless society. But is India ready for a cashless society yet? While online transactions will allow the government to keep a check on payments and lessen the possibility of black money in the economy, is it feasible to be dependent on online transactions rather than cash payments in India?
Paytm, PayPal or Airtel money along with card payments is becoming the norm, thanks to demonetization. The question is can India, a predominantly cash-run system, adjust to this drastic change? Is it even possible to go fully cashless? But the basic question is why do we need a cashless system?

What is a cashless system?
Early man used the barter system to exchange goods, which then progressed to coins made of precious metals like gold and silver. The Chinese invention of paper money made cash transactions easier and lighter to deal with. But the onset of the 21st century saw a need to upgrade the cash system. Enter the cashless system.

A system where no physical cash is in circulation is a cashless system. Payments are made through credit and debit cards, bank electronic fund transfers or virtual wallets. Cash is non-existent in such a system.

Cashless is painless
A cashless system brings down the transaction cost of printing, managing storing and transporting cash. The risk of money getting stolen or lost is almost zero. Cash is also untraceable, unaccountable, easy to hide, steal and counterfeit it. Cash feeds into the black money system, which brings down the money accountable to the nation.

This reduces money laundering and increases tax compliance. The country would be benefitted with the money due to it. Criminal activities like illegal drug trade, illegal immigration, terrorism, human trafficking and corruption would be minimized as these activities run on cash transactions. People would also be hugely benefitted, as standing in serpentine queues for cash and access to banks will no longer be a problem. Faster and simpler ways of shopping, paying bills and transferring money would make for a unified payment system around the world.

Can India go cashless?
India lacks infrastructure, which might be the biggest setback for a cashless system. Access to banking facilities and opening accounts has not reached the interior parts of India. In spite of Jan Dhan accounts being opened, most of the accounts seem non-operational. Lack of literacy about available banking facilities is a huge hindrance for such a system.

A cashless system needs a strong online system to function. Internet availability and knowledge about technology is crucial for the same. There is also a fear amongst people regarding online transactions. Losing internet connection while transaction is being processed, hacking or being cheated by fake online portals are fears, which need to be addressed. Small retailers in India do not have the facilities to move to online payment. Going cashless needs to be motivated by providing tax benefits and perks.

Steps taken for cashless India
The Reserve Bank of India has initiated payment banks, which simplify digital payments in all walks of life. It is a pre-cursor move to encourage India to ditch cash.

Post demonetization, the government has also dropped surcharge and service charge on card usage. The message is very clear that India is going guns blazing to stop cash flow and to go digital. The government has also eased norms for e-commerce to do business with Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra etc, becoming hugely popular.

The initiative of Unified Payments Interface by National Payments Corporation of India makes digital transactions as simple as sending a text message.

Digital wallets like Paytm, Pay U, Mobikwik, Gio Money, etc, are being promoted by the government to send money, pay bills, buy movie tickets or even give e-gift vouchers.

India is still far away from being cashless, but the steps taken have surely initiated the long-drawn process.

NO. INDIA is not ready to for Digital Economy.
Here are the reasons why!
As of last week, there were 256 million no-frills ‘Jan Dhan’ accounts, roughly one for every household, under the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY). The scheme also promised to provide every new account holder with RuPay debit cards, with 195 million cards being issued so far.
Just as building more schools does not improve literacy rates, opening accounts does not empower citizens to make digital financial transactions.!
A recent investigation from September found that 10 million accounts held only Re. 1, as bank officials took matters into their own hands to reduce their branch’s share of zero-balance accounts. A survey of PMJDY customers conducted by a financial inclusion consultancy found that only 33% of all beneficiaries were ready to use their Rupay cards. The others were bewildered by the complicated PIN and activation procedures. Inconsistent electricity and sporadic internet access further eroded customers’ trust in ATMs and POS machines, with one failed transaction enough to make an entire village swear off formal financial institutions.
Also Card acceptance infrastructure struggles to keep pace with India’s growing population: in 2014, there were 18 ATMs and 13 commercial bank branches per 100,000 adults – in comparison, the number in Brazil was 129 and 47 respectively. Between 2013 and 2015, debit cards grew twice as fast as the number of POS machines and one-and-a-half times the number of ATMs, with the majority of new infrastructure taking root in urban centres. India’s modern banking system maps neatly onto social and spatial inequalities. Only 18% of all ATMs are deployed in rural India.
India’s current economic moment constitutes a crucial inflection point; if handled correctly, there is a real chance that the unbanked will adopt digital payments en masse.
BUT Demonetisation will move India towards digital economy!!
The demonetisation move by the Indian government would reduce the role of blackmoney and will lead the country towards a digital economy but moving to a cashless system will take some time.
The move to cashless economy can't come soon to India. It is unfortunate that people are going through so much of a pain. But there is absolute no doubt that this is the right direction to go....!

My Thoughts -


Indians traditionally prefer to save and spend in cash, and a vast majority of population still doesn’t have a bank account or have a 0 balance bank account. A recent investigation from September found that 10 million accounts held only Rs. 1, as bank officials took matters into their own hands to reduce their branch’s share of zero-balance accounts.
Last year, 78% of all consumer payments in India were made by cash, whereas in developed countries like the U.S. and U.K., only 20% to 25% of such payments were made that way.

But as per Google-BCG report the reliance on notes and coins in India is likely to diminish, as spending habits change and financial services reach more people. A sharp increase in the use of mobile phones with internet connectivity will help drive the move to digital payments.
Personal internet banking has become more popular in India over the past few years along with digital payment options that allow users to settle mobile phone, electricity and even taxi bills.
The recent spurt of growth has come from non-bank companies offering payment services.
The next level of growth will come when local mom-and-pop grocery stores start accepting digital payments and this demonetization is helping in it.

However, there are plenty of consumers and merchants who still feel skeptical of digital payments, or find them too complicated, And others just don’t want to give up using cash.

Less cash would mean less black money, less corruption, and more transparency.

But is India really ready to go digital?
I don’t think so.
In my opinion, digital India is a way distant dream, particularly for rural India. It has to go far away to become a cashless economy.
Consider the following statistics:

As per Newslaundry.com, there were 5.3 bank branches per one lakh Indians in rural India 15 years ago. Today the figure stands at 7.8 bank branches per one lakh Indians. This shows that a majority of rural India has very little access to banks and the organized financial sector. They rely heavily on cash and the informal credit system.

Then, we have just 2.2 lakh ATMs in the country. For a population of over 1.2 billion people, that's a very small number and a majority of ATMs are concentrated in metros and cities. For instance, Delhi has more ATMs than the entire state of Rajasthan.

Given the poor penetration of banks and formal sector financial services in rural India, I believe that Modi's cashless economy ambitions are a distant dream.

Then there are issues of related to security.
Can the common man fully trust that his hard earned money in the financial system will be safe from hackers and fraudsters?

And the answer does not seem be a comforting one!

There have been several instances of debit and credit cards being hacked and large sums of money fraudulently withdrawn from the accounts and large population still not financial literate, they fall in trap of such frauds easily.

Therefore, unless the whole financial system is made more secure and fool proof, the shift towards a cashless economy can prove to be a financial nightmare for the common man.

So, In my opinion India is not perfectly ready to move towards digital economy but the preparation is going in the right direction. The demonetization move by the Indian government would reduce the role of black money, infrastructure is in place and it will lead the country towards a digital economy but moving to a cashless system will take some time.

“Is India ready to move towards Digital Economy?”
According to me it is a  debatable issue , well there are some factors that shows that our nation is ready for it and some factors shows that it will be hard to implement on the strategy of cashless economy.
But yeah, the invalidation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes  form currency is turned out to be an important step towards cashless economy , which leads to a mushrooming awareness about digital economy in Indian populace .
Some factors which shows that India is ready for cash less economy are:-
• Urbanization – Era is changing ,day by day India is moving towards a developed country , Urban places of our nation are the meeting point of all good cultures of various localities. Education, science and technology developments take place in urban places improving the society as a whole.
• Awareness -  Even before force led by the government, general populace of our nation already started various ways of digital payments like POS machines, smart cards , online transfers , etc. So we can say that Urban and semi urban areas of our nation are ready for it.
• Government support –,IT ministry outreach campaign to generate awareness about digital payments,80 L villagers to be informed through common service centers,Labour ministry opening accounts for unorganized and contract worker,Textile ministry to facilitate cashless payments for sector workers,Micro Atms at labor intensive sites to facilitate transactions, these are some steps taken by government .

Some factors which shows that still the stage is far away , since there are lots of drawbacks and limitations , some are:-
• A consumer skeptical about safety and security issues.
• Users worried their devices could be hacked or attacked by virus.
• Often money is debited but transaction is declined.
• Often extra charges are levied on digital transactions.
• Disclosing details might create problems if info’s used by hackers .    
Still people are in dilemma that whether they have to go  cashless or remain stick on traditional mode.

Yes, India is ready to move towards Digital Economy. First of all what is Digital Economy?

Digital Economy is the economic activity that results from billions of everyday online connections among people, businesses, devices, data, and processes.The digital economy is developing rapidly worldwide. It is the single most important driver of innovation, competitiveness and growth in an economy.

Demonetisation is one of the major reason for India moving towards an digital economy.And also,Indian government focuses on cashless economy it is good for the economy as it will bring more transparency & decrease black money. This is a massive step (towards fighting black money and digital economy).Because of Demonetisation people started making use of technology faster than ever before,today even sabjiwala and normal shopkeepers also know how to use the PAYTM,Online transactions etc.This growth can be seen from below mentioned figures :

1.)Swipe machine Payments: 50 lac to 98.1 lac.
2.)Increase in no. Of e-wallet transactions: 17lac to 63 lac.
3.)Overall online transactions in 1 month :16 lac

By seeing above figures one can easily estimates that India is moving towards Digital Economy and sooner to developed countries.One very good initiative taken by Srinagar government that they made a policy of training one member about digital payments from every family.Talking about Akodara(Sabarkantha) village in Gujarat,has gone fully digitalized.

A very famous quote by Robin Sharma: “ Change is hardest at the beginning, messiest in the middle and best at the end”.So at starting it will take some time but in future it will have a great impact on the GDP as well as on an economy.

Digital economy refers to an economy that is based on digital computing technologies. The digital economy is also sometimes called the Internet Economy, the New Economy, or Web Economy. India's new leadership considers the digital economy as a major growth enabler. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi strategically listed “Digital India” among the top priorities for the new central government, he delivered a resounding nod to the digital economy's opportunities
The digital economy is the new productivity platform that some experts regard as the third industrial revolution. Digital revolution, also known as ‘The Internet Economy’ or Internet of Everything (IoE)
Challenges of Digital Economy:
• Cashless, digital economy is difficult for us. The situation is such that day-by-day the condition of farmers has turned worrisome. It is the duty of government to protect the interest of the farmers, and both the Centre and state have responsibility to bear.
• The low literacy rates in rural areas along with lack of internet access or even basic utilities in many places, it becomes very difficult for people to adopt the habit for digital transactions.
• Most of the people do not trust digital transaction as they do it in cash as they are into habit of paying all money in cash
• Even we can see that there is long queue at the ATM and most of the shopkeepers do not accept the digital payment method.

So in my opinion, India is not ready for this transformation, but in near future India will be able to transform into a Digital economy by having necessary infrastructure required for this government is trying to incentives while filling the petrol in cars and giving the discount of 0.75%.

Yes, now India is ready to become a digital economy and in this demonetization plays a really big role.A recent Deloitte report suggests that if the Modi government’s ‘Digital India’ plan can increase broadband penetration across India by 50% and mobile penetration in rural India by 30% in the next two years, this could contribute towards a 9% increase in GDP; by 2025, the Digital India plan could boost GDP to $1 trillion. The World Bank similarly argues that a 10 % increase in mobile and broadband penetration can increase the per capita GDP by 1.38% in developing countries.Digital economy is very beneficial to the people of India as now instead of carrying currency in pocket a person having an android mobile phone with the e-wallets is quite easy and handy. In today's world digitization must in every sector.It will save very precious time and its accuracy is also more.In India almost 60 to 70 percent of different sectors are digitized, the basic digitization mainly includes wireless communication i.e mobile connectivity.Many of the new factors like Paytm ,oxygen wallets has been started but who knows that how many people know how to use these apps otherwise if all these factors gets solved than we can say that yes India  is moving  towards digital economy.
if we move towards digital economy then it will also helps in eliminating  corruption free environment. It is a revolutionary step that will transform India . It will propel India on the path of becoming a developed countries in the years to come.Some experts are of the view that the government's demonetization move will push more people and merchants to consider digital options. The government's initiative to scrutinize large cash transactions and demand PAN cards and IDs will keep on discouraging cash transactions.
It takes time to shift to digital platforms. Typically a period of three to four years with sustained government policies.

So, Yes Now We can say that India is ready to move towards a digital economy or cashless Economy At some extend.

I won’t say is India is ready right now to have digital economy our country  its surely moving towards Digital Economy. The digital economy is developing rapidly not only in India but worldwide and with Demonetization is the perfect exercise for it. Going for digital economy is source of innovation, competitiveness and growth and it holds huge potential for e-businesses   and e-commerce industries.  Digital Economy is more about the way the internet is used for supporting economic activities. The Digital Economy embraces the use of electronic services to create lifestyle enhancement which includes health, education and well being and wealth. It is the global network and social activities that are enabled by platforms such as the internet, mobile and sensor networks.  Let us see some of Physical Economies we have and the change we can have after Digital Economy and its advantages:

PHYSICAL ECONOMY:  Air travel, in flight sales, baggage handling fees….digital set top box sale….boxed software, wholesale and retail markups….magazine publishing, Store sales, Magazine subscription….Share trading brokerage….New product marketing, press releases , paper advertisements and so on and so on. Now let us see their version in digital economy

DIGITAL ECONOMY:  Digital ticketing, credit card handling fee, advertising in flight sales, commission for airline website referrals for car rentals….subscription movie fees, pay per view fees, internet access fees….Free basic online soft wares or free trial softwares, online larger storage fees….  Online subscription at reduced rate, introduction web pages with advertising…. Online trading fees, online account interest, online subscription fees, online paid reports….Web page for product, online video of product, online marketing and advertising, social media marketing.

DIGITAL ADVANTAGES:  reduces transaction costs, new revenue streams….digital services pay for the physical hardware over time…. Free service gains market share, paid services support fee service. Both services getting cheaper to run every year and customers will have less risk with free use….Extra revenue with little extra revenue with little extra costs, online audience can have wider reach. And have worldwide subscription. Digital economy can provide new revenue streams.
Already, there are discussion on having more individuals at petrol pumps, banks, post offices, villages, to make more and more people aware about digital payments.  Also, the main sector contributing to Indian Economy Agriculture and Emerging need expertise in these sectors. Though, it will require significant efforts in terms of investment in research and development of technology. We also need to think afresh about digital security, protection of sensitive customer.

In my opinion India is not fully ready to build digitize economy  as India has large population and most of them are still lives in rural area so it will take lots of time to make India a digital country. So many steps taken by our prime minister and one of the steps was demonetization in this Indian government rendered almost 86 per cent of total cash in the country worthless. It discontinued the currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 with immediate effect and declared all the old such notes invalid. The move was aimed at curbing black money within the country. It was also an attempt to move the nation towards an economy that is somewhat cashless, with digital transactions being the preferred way the people in the country do business. I believe unless big corporate start paying their smaller vendors and workers digitally, things will not change on the ground. Once money comes in digitally, it will be easier for banks to encourage these people to make non-cash payments, else all will be the same once the cash crunch is taken care of,”
There are many good things which can be done by digitization. Digital transactions are better in almost every way. They are more convenient and they help government check corruption or tax evasion. It is imperative, nay essential, that India moves towards a cashless economy. In this context the demonetization ordered by the Modi government is a welcome move. But at the same time, there is also the stark reality of India.
 >Majority of people does not have card.
 >Poor internet: Good connectivity is important for a cashless economy.
 >One big problem with India's adoption is its lack of policy framework.
 >Cyber security issues: This is another major issue that affects the digitization of monetary transactions in India.
 >No PoS machines.
 .> I believe unless big corporate start paying their smaller vendors and workers digitally, things will not change on the ground. Once money comes in digitally, it will be easier for banks to encourage these people to make non-cash payments, else all will be the same once the cash crunch is taken care of,”
So many other payment  app where also introduce like paytam and many other bank came forward to make india digital like yes bank came with a app named as phone pe .RBI vision Document  for 2018 , it had spoken about the need for banks to expand  the card acceptance infrastructure and promote digital means of funds transfer.
we can also contribute to make our country digital by  using e wallet for payment and educating more and more  people about apps i.e. e-wallet.

The demonetisation move by the Indian government would reduce the role of blackmoney and will lead the country towards a digital economy but moving to a cashless system will take some time. "This is a massive step (towards fighting blackmoney and digital economy). The foundation of which was laid by Aadhar, Jan Dhan Yojana and direct benefit transfer.
I think, the move to cashless economy can't come soon to India. It is unfortunate that people are going through so much of a pain. But there is absolute no doubt that this is the right direction to go.
The sooner the economy moves to a digital economy there will be less wastage, more productivity, more evolution and less of a black economy. I have not run into a single person who criticises this. we all favour this.
The Centre is making a big push for online and card-based transactions in the country but  it seems the country is not ready for such an immediate shakeup.
Much of the cash transactions in the country are small exchanges for goods or services and the penetration of PoS terminals is not enough. Millions of people still don’t have a bank account, access to PoS sale points, internet or infrastructure to understand and use online payment methods etc. So we need a large scale penetration of digital services and PoS terminals to facilitate digital transactions in small towns, rural areas, untapped markets in urban India.
Another big hurdle is the low literacy rates in rural areas along with lack of internet access or even basic utilities in many places, it becomes very difficult for people to adopt the habit for digital transactions.
Till the time this penetration for online payments doesn’t reach local stores, the transition will never be truly effective. For now it seems, the country is on the track to development but is rather hurriedly pushed into the reform.

India is trying to move toward Digital economy and its main cause is Demonetization. Though I don’t want to relate this topic to demonetization but this step of moving towards digital economy is just and only because of demonetization. We know people are doing payment through digital payment modes like paytm, freecharge etc. but generally it is just because they don’t have sufficient cash in their pocket to pay for their day to day transaction not because they are interested in doing so.
                                              As our central govt. is trying a lot to move towards digital economy so first of all they have to do some preparation which are as follows:-
1. Govt. should have spread awareness in people to open bank accounts because only 35%(apprpx) people have bank accounts.
2. They have to reach each and every corner of the country with vast and fast network which allows us to do our transections with in a second .
3. They have to make awareness in the people mostly in rural areas to be the part of this digital movement because they have fear that may be it will  harmfull for them or may be someone else will withdrawn money from their account.
        And, govt. should also take a major single precaution which is metioned below:-
1. Govt. should have to take some serious actions towards cyber crime. We are generally seen that companies websites are easily got hacked which is the biggest hurdle in this movement which doesn’t allow us to move a single step forward.  
                    So,as per me rather to say that India is ready to move towards digital economy it’s better to say that India is trying to move towards digital economy.

By announcing a ban on old rs 500 and 1000 notes and by limit the withdrawals from banks and ATMs, modi floated the idea of a cashless economy. India is not fully prepared to have cashless economy but this is high time to take such initiatives. We are living in an economy where most of our daily transactions happen in cash only and if this is not the proper time to initiate, then it would be too late.
Since we know that literate people are comfortable paying payments digitally but there are people in India who don’t know how to use digital ways to make payments. Debit and credit cards are simplest way to make payments but not every retailer or vendor is accepting it. If a person who don’t know using Pay tm and some other mobile wallet, he won’t be able to make payments digitally and got to pay in cash and not every vendor or retailer is accepting such ways of payments. So this NOTE BAN move left those people in middle of nowhere mostly in rural areas.
However, India has a huge proportion of digital illiteracy but using debit or credit card doesn’t require much digital literacy. To give a push to this Indian govt. rolled out incentives for going digital in financial transaction, introducing many daily and weekly lucky draws to encourage it.
There is a question of safety and security in digital modes, additional charges on transactions, issue of hacking accounts are some of problems which make people hard to choose which medium of payment they should opt.
On the other hand, yeah it’s true that in order to eliminate corruption from society it’s a high time to take such kind of steps because in India corrupt people can be seen everywhere involving in corrupt activities and helping the room getting filled up with corruption so that they can do anything the way they want without any legal eye watching them. By this Demonetization move things are getting better because there are less chances of corruption. Now more and more cashless transactions are taking place. There is so much transparency in digital mode of payment so that nobody gets cheated. A major part of population has accepted to be a part of this cashless economy and they’re following it in daily life too. Illiterate part of population would be known soon that this is not just a NOTE BAN there’s more to it than meets the eye.

Few days before, Indian government declared almost 86% of total cash in the country worthless. The move was aimed to repress black money within the country. It was also an attempt to move the nation towards an economy that is somewhat cashless, with digital transactions.
Digital transactions are better every way. They are convenient and also help government to check corruption or tax evasion. It is imperative that India moves towards a cashless economy. But at the same time it is also true that Indian is not exactly ready for cashless future due to the following reasons
1). Almost 60% of people in India are having neither debit nor credit card which are required in digital payment mode like Paytm, Freecharge etc. These people are from rural areas where such  technological awareness is not that much.
2). As we know that digital payment required good network connectivity where India is not   doing well even, that creates problem because you can’t have cashless  economy powered by 2G networking.
3).  One big problem with India's adoption is its lack of policy framework. And when it comes to policy, one very sensitive area at which government  ignoring is the data protection and privacy laws because Money is a sensitive thing and it requires lots of privacy n authentication if we are dreaming to become Digital India.
4). Another problem is that there is no Point of Sale machine with the maximum retailer as they are not interested in this digitalization because they want cash in hand rather than cash at bank just to meet day to day requirement and also avoiding standing in large queue at bank.
So rather than saying that India is ready, it is better to say that India is trying hard to become Digital Economy Nation.

"Change is hardest at the beginning, messiest in the middle and best at the end”.So at starting it will take some time but in future it will have a great impact on the GDP as well as on an economy."

Yes, India is ready to move towards digital economy. One of the major offshoots of the demonetisation drive is a push towards a cashless, digital economy. Digital India has the potential to harness the talent of the young India. And if cashless economy is incorporated in it, it would actually make economy grow faster and grow clean.
The demonetisation drive has forced millions of Indians to not just queue up at ATMs but also fall in line with the government's digital push, even as online payment services firms are laughing all the way to the bank. In a nation where most consumers have been dealing in cash till now, the currency switch has provided the Centre an opportunity to give a big push to electronic transactions to improve transparency and weed out black money.
It is very beneficial for the country & public but it will surely take a long time but yes India is moving towards digital Economy innovative solutions. A very good initiative taken by Srinagar government that they made a policy of training one member about digital payments from every family.

Talking about Akodara village in Gujarat, which has gone fully digitalized.
The project of digital village has been started by the ICICI bank in collaboration with the district administration. This is a part of the programme Digital India launched by the Government of India, in which ICICI bank has adopted the Akodara village to make it a digital village.The concept of digital Akodara is based on three “Cs”: Cashless, Connected and Comprehensive.

"Digital India"is a vision, which is based on three key areas :

1) To make various utilities available to the citizens through cutting-edge digital infrastructure. It will enable delivery of services like banking and access to service centres at the doorstep of citizens with the assistance of high speed internet.

2) The second area of vision will be the focus on governance and services. This digital movement will bring everything in the palms of people across departments and places. It will enable providing services to people in real time, cutting across every hindrance. It will also enhance the usage of cloud services and enable citizens to receive their due just from these services.

3) The foremost vision would be to empower citizens digitally. The digital resources, like documents etc. will be easily available on the cloud, making access to information easier and faster. This will consequently lead to a digital revolution in the country. Further, the services would be friendlier as they would be available in native languages, making their penetration comprehensible and vast.

This all are the reason which says India can be a digital economy.

Yes, India is ready to move towards digital economy. It can be seen from following excerpts:
"India is witnessing a surge in digital payment, backed by government reforms and initiatives after high-denomination currency notes were discontinued in early November."As people are pushed to adopt new payment patterns in face of shortage of notes in circulation, India is increasingly going digital post demonetisation. The use of cash is being discouraged and what was initially a reform aimed at tackling the problem of black money has now turned into an opportunity for the government and its various agencies to take the country towards a digital transaction environment. The platforms, primarily used to pay for mobile recharges and utility bills, are now expanding to toll plazas, petrol pumps and other places, becoming viable alternatives to cash for smart phone users with a stable internet connection. Paytm, which is backed by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, a massive Chinese internet company, is one such digital payment company. It has claimed that its platform saw over 35 million transactions for recharge of mobile and DTH services.
“Paytm has registered a strong surge in online recharges on its platform post the government’s move. Millions of new consumers across the country have adopted digital, cash-free recharges and bill payments for the first time,” shared Paytm Senior Vice-President, Shankar Nath. The company has added 700 sales representatives since the announcement of demonetisation to keep up with the growing usage of its services.The government of India has stepped up in promoting and upgrading several projects that are specifically aimed at moving towards a cashless transaction space in India, with a special committee formed to look into digitising government-citizen transactions. National Institution for Transforming India, a policy think tank established by Modi, will have its CEO Amitabh Kant, leading the committee.
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is also taking steps to promote the UPI platform that was launched earlier this year, which involves direct transfer of money between two accounts through a mobile application.
It is true that changes can't be implemented completely or we can say that it is impossible that all of a sudden india will start moving towars digital economy but it is true and it can be seen from above information that india is ready to became a digital economy. The challenges and steps taken by government in this regard are following:

Steps taken by Indian government towards digital economy:

2.1Infrastructure development in bridging the digital divide
2.2 Role of government programmes for e–governance
2.3 Role of community information centres (CIC)
2.4 Role of libraries and information centres
2.5 Role of academic institutions
2.6 Efforts made by private business houses
2.7 Role of dot–com companies
2.8 Digital India Campaign

Challenges:

(i) Infrastructural barriers
Despite the incredible growth of the Internet since the early 1990’s, India still lacks a
robust telecommunication infrastructure with sufficient reliable bandwidth for Internet
connection. Due to higher costs the necessary upgrading of hardware and software is
difficult; hence, despite the rapid spread of the Internet the gap is growing wider as the
technological standard grows even higher. Faster networks, higher level machines, more
complex software and more capable professionals are required, but in many nations
including India the funding is not available to support these developments.
Libraries and information centres, with their commitment to freedom of access to
information and promotion of life–long learning in India, are yet to have a robust
infrastructure. Public libraries which can provide access to the Internet do not have
computers and Internet access. Although cyber–cafes have been increasing, poor people
cannot afford to have access due to high cost.
(ii)Literacy and skill barriers

Education and information literacy will play an important role in keeping society from
fragmenting into information haves and have–nots. In the perspective of the digital divide,
IT literacy is very important to allow access to digital information. In a country like India
where roughly 50 percent of people do not have reading and writing skills for functioning
in everyday life, IT literacy is out of the question. Generally, online content and
information have been designed for an audience that reads at an average or advanced
literacy level and those who have discretionary money to spend.
Education in information literacy will play an important role in keeping the society from
fragmenting into a population of information haves and have–nots. The lack of skill in
using computer and communication technology also prevents people from accessing
digital information.

(iii)Economic barriers

Poor access to computer and communication technology also causes a digital divide. In
India the ability to purchase or rent the tool for access to digital information is less among
the masses. The lower income group does not have discretionary money to spend on
cyber–cafes or to get Internet connectivity on their own to access digital information.

(iv)Content barriers

The Internet allows ideas and information to be shared freely from citizen to citizen
globally. In many ways the strength of the Internet is a function of the number of people
and organisations creating quality content. Since no entity controls the Internet, anyone
with Internet access has the potential to contribute information. Therefore, to solve the
digital divide, steps should be taken by the government to ensure that all citizens are able
to receive diverse content relevant to their lives as well as to produce their own content
for their communities and for the Internet at large.

(v)Language barriers

India is a country having a multicultural and multilingual population. Today a large
percentage of information content on the Internet is in English, which is a barrier for the
people whose primary language is not English.

Is India Ready to Move towards Digital Economy?

Y.E.S

Y-YOUR
E-ELECTRONIC
S-SYSTEM

Yes, As the Pm Says My India & this is Our Own Electronic System. Made by us & for us .

I definitely think of that thought that INDIA is Ready to move towards Digital Economy; rather it has already Started moving.
We are all aware about the situation of shortage of cash since the announcement of Demonetization, now 45-46 days down the line of demonetization India is moving on in terms of business & people are living their lives lavishly as they were doing it pre-demonetization. HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE IF CASH IS NOT THERE???
It is all because of the Digital Drive that has got very well down with the natives of the country. Those who were aware they had no issues but, those who weren’t aware had some difficulties in the very beginning adapting to these changes as they were totally amateur in technology. But after the sincere efforts of the govt. & specifically PayTm they started adapting to these changes as they were directed, the result is such that now 50-60% of usual transaction have become digitalized.

According to RuPay India’s very own Payment Gateway ,” Digital Transactions have increased immensely from 4 lakh transaction per day to 8-9 lakh transactions per day.
Talking about PayTm itself alone is witnessing 2-3 thousand accounts opening each day. PayTm is growing by a whopping 70-80% . PayTm is updating its app every 2-3 days to accomadate changes & help its customers too become digital.

Even the govt. has ordered the bank to lay off charges from debit & credit card transaction so that people entail confidence in people that online transactions are of the same cost as that of cash transactions. This was done because people in India are more concerned about money so if same values are provided to them in digital transactions they will slowly and gradually adapt to it.
Online Payment Merchants have started providing cash backs &reward points. As a result people in India are slowly adapting to digital processes & this number is growing immensely.

These all evidences may be appropriate to prove that INDIA is moving towards Digital Economy

One of the major offshoots of the demonetization drive is a push towards a cashless, digital economy.The demonetization move by the Indian government would reduce the role of black money and will lead the country towards a digital economy but moving to a cashless system will take some time. This is a massive step towards fighting black money and digital economy. And universal payment interface is another brilliant step that the government of India is working on.I think, the move to cashless economy can't come soon to India. It is unfortunate that people are going through so much of a pain. But there is absolute no doubt that this is the right direction to go.
One very good initiative is taken by Srinagar government that they made a policy of training one member about digital payments from every family.
.Now a days you can find some of the small shops or local vendors have started using “PayTm”as they know India is moving towards cashless economy infact it also helps people to pay online without carrying any cash in their pocket.The village which has gone fully digitalized is Akodara (Sabarkantha) located in Gujrat. India is on the way to go cashless

Some people are also moving towards cashless habit. Now a days every thing is available online and we can easily get it with easy payment gateway. Also at many places paytm is accepted and some people feel comfortable to pay through paytm. Government is also offering some discount on paying bills through paytm or cards (i.e. not cash). Also not only paytm many portals are available like freecharge, mobikwik, pocket etc. and they are having tie-up with many organizations, shops etc.a, so that we can pay easily through these e-wallets.
It will take some time but definetly India is moving towards cashless economy.