Is the e-RUPI government’s first step towards UBI?
If you follow tech and finance by now you must have heard about e-RUPI a lot. But still, if anyone of you is living under a rock, e-RUPI is a QR code or SMS string-based e-voucher, which is delivered to the mobile of the beneficiaries. It is a cashless and contactless person- and purpose-specific digital payment solution launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi via video conference on Monday.
Universal basic income (UBI) is a government program in which every adult citizen receives a set amount of money regularly. The goals of a basic income system are to alleviate poverty and replace other need-based social programs that potentially require greater bureaucratic involvement. The idea of universal basic income has gained momentum in the world as automation increasingly replaces workers in manufacturing and other sectors of the economy. The AI community across the world has been supporting UBI, and I think the government has also started thinking about it and e-RUPI is the first step towards building the infrastructure for such schemes.
With automation taking more and more jobs in the world, more and more people will eventually become unemployed, so to assist these people in survival governments are planning to give these individuals a UBI. Now there had been a lot of debates on whether UBI is a good idea or a poor economical idea, that is a reason only a few countries around the world have it. But as automation will take over the world, we will be left with no option but to implement UBI. So proactive governments around the world are taking steps to implement such schemes.
Majorly there are two problems that arise while distributing UBI. First, the middlemen doing a lot of corruption, creating fake profiles of individuals and keeping the money with them. Second, the money sent for UBI is used in the right manner by individuals for basic needs. People might drink beers with this money, but that is not the money for. It is for your grocery and daily essentials.
The e-RUPI plan tends to solve both of these problems. It is cutting out the middlemen and money is transferred directly to the beneficiary. Also, it is sent in the form of vouchers meaning if the voucher is sent for someone’s education, then the individual can only encash it for educational purposes. Also in this way government can track the expenditure of people.
So, I myself belonging to the AI community is a big supporter for UBI, because in 10–20 years we will have robots do everything and we just cannot discard people like that without caring for them. So it is good that the government is being proactive for such developments.
