Visakhapatnam To Become The ‘First Cashless City’ In The World

Visakhapatnam is reportedly all prepped up to become the ‘first cashless city’ in the world a span of 12 months. After Paytm setting up its office here, payment network Visa has joined hands with the Andhra Pradesh government at Davos for the same.

IT and Panchayat Raj Minister Nara Lokesh will be in the city today to participate in the Visa cashless programme. Vizag will now borrow expertise from other markets and develop a blueprint as to how the transition will take place. Cashless transactions will now be promoted in government and private officers, retail businesses and more as a part of the ‘Project Digital Sankalp’.

Nara Lokesh will sign an agreement with ANSR company and APIIC at Novotel, Varun Beach today. 10 acres of land has been allocated to ANSR in the city and the firm will be investing Rs 1000 crore to create 10,000 jobs in the next 10 years. Visa has already signed a MoU with the state government and will lay the foundation for making Visakhapatnam the Fintech Valley and Fintech capital of India.

Visa has reportedly appointed McKinsey & Company for assisting the development of the blueprint. Nara Lokesh will now attend a meeting with Visa, senior government officials and other stakeholders to kick start the project. The developments lined up in the future are driving payment digitalisation, building the digital payment capability, assisting by nurturing start-ups and promotion of boot camps and hackathons.

Visa will also be setting up a steering committee to turn Visakhapatnam into the role model it has the potential to be. A proposal reportedly stands to involve the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, along with educational institutions like the Indian School of Business in the drive. A team of consultants will be guiding the steering committee.

Visakhapatnam will partner with GVMC, INS Kursura Museum, APSRTC, AU, RTO office, e-seva and the traders at the railway station for the cashless move. GVMC and APEPDCL have reportedly already tied up with a private software firm for the collection of dues.