Sugarcane Breeding Institute (SBI) here has received the Cashless Institute Award.

The award, carrying Rs. 3 lakh, was given away by the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Radha Mohan Singh, at the recently held ‘Annual Conference of Vice-Chancellors of Agricultural Universities and Directors of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Institutes’ in New Delhi.

Tracing the steps taken towards this prestigious recognition for institutionalising digital transactions, the Institute Director Dr. Bakshi Ram said in a release today that in December last, the Institute had initially prepared a road map for transition to the cashless mode for all financial transactions in the Institute.

The infrastructural bottlenecks affecting the access and utility of digital payment options were also assessed and subsequently, starting from January 13, the institute has gone cashless for the transactions by installation of Point of Sale (PoS) machines, replacement of cash with debit cards, and insisting on alternative other digital payment systems, he said.

Simultaneously, the staff members were also made aware of the action plan and were encouraged to utilise the digital payment options.

All the sub-centres of the Institute were made cashless by adopting digital payment systems in receipts, payments and transactions, he added.