Lucky Grahak: Mobile EMI fetches Rs 1-crore bonanza for student

An EMI payment of Rs 1,590 for a newly bought mobile phone has earned a mega lottery of Rs 1 crore for 20 year-old engineering student Shradha Mohan Mengshette under the government's Lucky Grahak Yojana.

Mengshette, a second year student of Electrical Engineering from Latur district in Maharashtra, received the cash prize from Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a function in Nagpur today.

She won the mega prize for making a transaction of Rs 1,590 through her Rupay card online.

The second prize of Rs 50 lakh under the Lucky Grahak Yojana, an official statement said, was won by Hardik Kumar from Khambhat in Gujarat.

The 29-year-old is a primary school teacher who used his Rupay card for making a transaction of Rs 1,100.

Under the Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojana category for merchants, the first prize of Rs 50 lakh was won by Anand Ananthapadmanabhan for accepting a payment of Rs 300 at GRT Jewellers in Tambaram, Tamil Nadu.

The second prize of Rs 25 lakh was won by Ragini Rajendra Uttekar, owner of a small beauty parlour in Thane, Maharashtra, the statement said.

She accepted a payment of Rs 510 which won her the amount, it added.

NITI Aayog's two schemes to incentivize digital payments -- Lucky Grahak Yojana and DigiDhan Vyapar Yojana -- was launched on December 25 last year.

According to the statement, Rs 258 crore of prize money was won by 16 lakh winners, including customers and merchants belonging to different corners of the country and from varied walks of life.