Swati Sudhakaran Wins the FreeCharge Digital Republic Blog Challenge

Swati Sudhakaran, has won the first prize of the FreeCharge Digital Republic Blog Challenge. The blogging contest was organised by FreeCharge, in an effort to understand the opinion of youth on the transition from a cash economy to a digital economy.

Winners of the contest will be provided with a chance to intern at FreeCharge. The contest also had a cash prize of Rs 100,000 for the first place, Rs 50,000 for two winners and Rs 20,000 for five winners.

Swati’s blog titled “Cashing In on Cashless” won the first prize in the competition. The winning post was selected through a rigorous selection process amongst numerous entries. The blog highlights the fact that the digital economy was already co-existing with the cash economy for quite some time. The last few months saw a significant spike in digital payments thanks to the sudden demonetisation. The increased digital payments, has made the concept of digital economy a serious contender to be the main lead in the market play.

A short excerpt from the blog:

There is no doubt, as to how 2017 is going to be set deep, in the themes and discourses around digitalization, Big Data, Cyber security, privacy, IoT(Internet of Things), blockchains and e-wallets.  Going cashless is going to radically alter the relationship between the consumer and the market. In many ways, the millennials will find themselves to be placed on a pedestal by online firms and wooed into engaging in a level of unprecedented consumerism.This could take a turn either ways, people could spend heavily via cards as a card payment does not give the same sharp pinch of parting with money as the physical entity of cash. Or the millennials could become better monetarily disciplined- by having a paisa for paisa account of their daily transactions. Apps to curb binge spending would be linked to e-wallets and act as a strict parent to put an end to the spending spree.

Click here to read the full blog.

Swati Sudhakaran is a student of Master of Arts in Public Policy, a course run by Mount Carmel College in collaboration with the Takshashila Institution.