Rajkot: A Gujarati Memon Muslim youth from Pakistan visited his native village in the remote coastal area of Gujarat and was shocked to see the progress India has achieved even in a such deep rural area.

Uzair Younus in a Youtube podcast interview given to host Shehzad said – there’s energy that you feel among people in India. And the way to sum it up is they are feeling, they are saying, this is our moment, if not now, then never, that’s the attitude. The attitude is that there’s lot of investment in infrastructure, on building things, on a lot of activities to digitize the country.

Giving examples, Uzair said – in Bombay, Mochi, Panwala, Kachori wala have QR codes. I observed people would consume Kachori and leave without making (cash) payment. I thought why people don’t pay money here? I then observed that they would scan the QR code and leave. The fintech companies have given smart speakers connected to merchant’s wallets. SO while making Kachori or Pan, the shopkeeper would listen to the announcements from Speaker regarding the payments made by customers.

Reacting to this, the host of the show stated – basically it seems you traveled to the future by going to India from Pakistan. To this, Uzair replies – yes it’s transformational.

The host further stated that we in Pakistan don’t have basic 5G, like the one, Jio has rolled out in India.

Uzair narrating his experience of visiting a remote part of Gujarat said he went to Ghed Bagasara village, the village of his paternal father 200 km South of Rajkot towards the Arabian sea. It’s a village with a 3,000 around population and 4G LTE was working there.

UZair also speaks about JAM (Jandhan Aadhar Mobile) rollout by the Modi government that involves zero balance bank account, UPI, mobile phone access, and Aadhar unique ID.

A Pakistani youth Uzair Younus visits his paternal native village in Gujarat, and stays amazed by India's transformation; "Going to India from Pakistan seems like travel to future" https://t.co/mMtzjdC4lV pic.twitter.com/kr2GmpZYQI

— DeshGujarat (@DeshGujarat) March 9, 2023

‘Aadhar doesn’t charge money. The cost of pinging the Aadhar database is very little or none. The cost of sending money through UPI is zero. The government provides the infrastructure. It’s a digital rail road where micropayments pass through. The bank account (Jandhan) move was questioned initially but then the government used it for service deliveries, against corruption, digitization, insurance, credit, digitized payment, and more.

Uzair said when he walked through the remote village in coastal Saurashtra, he saw a small shop opposite Durgah that had QR code for payment. He added that he couldn’t use the QR code-linked payment as UPI would not work for foreigners.

He shared another experience and said he met one Govindbhai, a very poor person who would buy old items and sell them. He had smartphone with 4G LTE.

While walking through the village, Uzair saw a well-painted structure in good condition. As he couldn’t read Hindi, Uzair asked Rameshbhai, who replied him that it was a local school building. Uzair says the building was amazing. He adds that there’s 90 percent literacy in Batwa, Bagasara.

DeshGujarat