Akodara village in
Sabarkantha district of Gujarat has earned the title of being the first digital village in India.
The village has a population of 1191 people.
It uses cashless system for payment of goods and services.
All transactions in the village are carried out through digital modes such as debit cards, SMS or net banking
Akodara close to the capital city of Ahmedabad was adopted and developed as a digital village with a rural branch of the bank by the ICICI Foundation
In the village, most transactions between INR 10 and 5000 are done through SMS. The payment goes to the shopkeeper’s bank account as the buyer and seller are both connected through the accounts in the same bank.
The village has its own website: http://akodara-digitalvillage.in.
Wi-Fi with high speed broadband connectivity has some 50 subscribers through 200 odd households.
The wi-fi facility also enables farmers to access the latest price of agricultural commodities on NCDEX with the bank acting as a hub for business activity.
The ICICI Bank has developed a dedicated and customised SMS banking platform and software for the village to enable users to do basic banking transactions in English and Gujarati.
Bank has also developed micro ATM based solution to facilitate the local mandi commission agents to make payments to farmers for their produce.
About Digital IndiaDate of launch: 1st July 2015
Ministry: Ministry of Communication and Information Technology
Motto: Power to Empower
Digital India consists of three core components :- The creation of digital infrastructure
- Delivery of services digitally
- Digital literacy
