Indian Economy News

Digital push deepens in rural India as eGramSwaraj records US$ 32.45 billion in online payments

India's rural governance environment is currently going through a digital governance transformation, with the eGramSwaraj platform facilitating cumulative online payments of over Rs. 3 lakh crore (US$ 32.45 billion), thus promoting greater transparency and financial accountability at the Gram Panchayat level. Developed under the e-Panchayat Mission Mode Project and linked with the Public Financial Management System (PFMS), this platform facilitates real-time payments directly to vendors and service providers, thus replacing traditional paper-based and cash-dominated systems with a faster, more efficient, and more reliable system. In FY25-26, for example, Panchayati Raj Institutions have made payments of Rs. 53,342 crore (US$ 5.77 billion) through the interface of eGramSwaraj and PFMS, while 2,55,254 Gram Panchayats have uploaded their plans for development on this platform. The extent of its adoption can be gauged from the fact that it has onboarded 2,59,798 Panchayati Raj Institutions and over 1.60 crore vendors, thus promoting greater digital governance in rural India.

In conjunction with this financial digitization, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj's Artificial Intelligence-based SabhaSaar platform now supports 23 languages, compared to the previous 13, and this has helped enhance the inclusiveness of the democratic processes in the country. The SabhaSaar platform helps in the automated voice-to-text summarization of Gram Sabha meetings, which include the minutes, attendance, resolutions, and action points, and this helps make the democratic processes more accessible and inclusive through the local languages. The newly added languages include Assamese, Bodo, Dogri, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Manipuri, Nepali, Santhali, and Sindhi, and these languages have helped expand the reach of the SabhaSaar platform to the entire gamut of the Panchayati Raj system in the country. Until January 29, 2026, over 1,11,486 Gram Panchayats have already benefited from the SabhaSaar platform, and this is an indication of the government's efforts towards the development of digitally empowered, transparent, and participatory rural governance, as part of the larger objectives of the Digital India initiative.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.