In November 2016, demonetisation of the currency was announced by the Government of India. Two months later, in January 2017, Karang island, located in the middle of Loktak Lake in Manipur, was declared as the country’s first cashless island by the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology under its Digital India programme. The training and awareness to make the island cashless was held in an intense manner, initially. The Karang Island Boat Association and Karang Island Cashless Promotion Society extended their help in holding campaigns on cashless transactions. Shopkeepers were given point of sale (PoS) card swipe machines to accept digital payments. However, things have changed over the last two years and the flip back to cash has been inevitable.
The enthusiasm to have a cashless system there could not be sustained. In fact, it appears to have been just a motivated slogan of going ‘cashless’, as the actual realities of the place were not considered. With a population of around 3000 people, only a few of them have smartphones and the island does not have broadband connection, which are key instruments for digital payments. Whenever the PoS machines broke down, the shopkeepers had to take it to the nearby Moirang, which is almost 9 km away from Karang, to get it repaired. Now the PoS machines that had been popularised, lie idle. So, needless to say, Karang has switched back to cash currency from digital currency.