Banks in the country have issued nearly 60 per cent more RuPay cards for Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna (PMJDY) account-holders in the two months following demonetisation of ₹500 and ₹1,000 currency notes on November 8 than they had issued a year prior to that.

Banks had added around 2.83 crore new RuPay cards from November 25, 2015, to November 9, 2016. Compared to this, in just two months following demonetisation, nearly 1.56 crore RuPay cards were issued.

The number of RuPay cards increased to 19.43 crore by November 9, 2016 from 16.6 crore as on November 25, 2015.

Of the 26.68 crore PMJDY account-holders, nearly 21 crore (78.71 per cent) had RuPay cards by January 11.

RuPay card is an initiative by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to allow all Indian banks and financial institutions to participate in electronic payments.

Aadhaar seeding

In spite of the Prime Minister’s endorsement of JAM (Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and mobile) vision on several forums, the seeding of Aadhaar numbers with PMJDY accounts remained at 42 per cent of the total PMJDY accounts in November 2015. Of the 19.34 crore accounts, only around 8.19 crore were seeded with Aadhaar numbers as on November 25 2015.

The Prime Minister had stated that the JAM vision would serve as the bedrock of many initiatives to come.

Aadhaar seeding with bank accounts crossed the 50 per cent mark only in August 2016.

In the one year to November 2016, banks seeded 5.49 crore more accounts with Aadhaar numbers.

Of the 25.51 crore PMJDY accounts, around 13.68 crore were seeded with Aadhaar by November 9, 2016. During the post-demonetisation period between November 9, 2016, and January 11, 2017, banks seeded 1.67 crore more accounts with Aadhaar numbers.

Of the 26.68 crore PMJDY account-holders, nearly 15.36 crore (57.58 per cent) were seeded with Aadhaar numbers by January 11.

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