New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said his pet Digital India initiative is a war against touts and middlemen, helping check blackmoney and black marketing while creating immense job opportunities in small towns and rural areas. Interacting with beneficiaries of the various Digital India efforts, Modi pushed for use of RuPay, the Indian version of credit/debit card, saying when other similar cards are used the transaction or processing fee goes to foreign companies. However, when RuPay is used, the money remains in India and is used for development works and infrastructure projects.

The Prime Minister said people made fun of him when he first spoke of digital payments in the country where people were used to stashing money underneath the pillow and ration could not be availed without middlemen. But experiences narrated by beneficiaries of how services are reaching people directly are a befitting reply to such naysayers, he said.