NEW DELHI: The largest-ever cash transfer scheme launched on Friday to put Rs 30,000 crore in Jan Dhan accounts of women has validated the evangelical push for implementation of the Jan Dhan scheme which saw the government exhorting crores of people to open bank accounts.By Saturday, the accounts of around 40% of the 20-crore women beneficiaries had seen cash deposits of Rs 500 each. Similarly, around 8 crore beneficiaries of the Ujjwala scheme will get close to Rs 5,000 crore in their bank accounts to purchase cooking gas cylinders for three months.The swift transfer of money at a time of countrywide lockdown is being seen as the success of the Jan Dhan scheme launched by the Narendra Modi government in its first term. The transfer into the accounts, which have been seeded with Aadhaar, is likely to ensure the money reaches those for whom it is intended.“The prescription to fund the unfunded is proving to be an effective remedy, proving the efficacy of the architecture of schemes, including the weaponisation of Aadhaar as a welfare dispensing instrument, which was put in place five years ago,” said a senior source in the government.In addition, a payment of Rs 16,000 crore as the next installment of Kisan Samman stipend is expected to go directly into the account of 8.7 crore farmers. Another Rs 3,000 crore will be put into the accounts of senior citizens, widows and the differently-abled, categories which need succour in these challenging times.As the Covid-19 pandemic has swept through the world, threatening to lay waste both developed and developing economies, countries responded in two different ways to tackle the fallout.First was through fiscal and monetary measures, but the second was through income support programmes to the most vulnerable and small businesses. The latter, according to economists and policy experts, is the key to bridging the gap between a devastating economic downturn and hopefully an eventual recovery.Interestingly, when PM Narendra Modi held a video conference with Indian envoys around the globe, one of the things that emerged was a similarity between Indian and the US approaches on income support policies. This, even as Washington and New Delhi took very different paths in tackling the pandemic.On March 26, the Modi government announced a set of cash transfer and related benefits that would use the JAM (Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile) backbone to implement largescale, technology-enabled and real-time direct benefit transfers. Having set this system up in the first term of the government, this would be an ideal time to use it.As Jahangir Aziz of JP Morgan Chase Bank wrote, “The government’s efforts over the last five years make India one of the best placed economies to deliver such cash transfers.”The government’s announcement will see 20 crore women Jan Dhan account holders get Rs 500 per month for the next three months; increase in MGNREGA wage to Rs 202 a day from Rs 182 to benefit 13.62 crore families; ex-gratia of Rs 1,000 to 3 crore poor senior citizens, poor widows and poor disabled. The government will also front-load Rs 2,000 paid to farmers in the first week of April under the existing PM Kisan Yojana to benefit 8.7 crore farmers, as well as extend insurance cover of Rs 50 lakh per health worker fighting Covid-19.On March 27, US President Donald Trump also announced a set of similar income support measures. Most adults will get $1,200. For every qualifying child aged 16 or under, the payment will be an additional $500.Single adults with social security numbers who have an adjusted gross income of $75,000 per year or less will get the full amount. Married couples with no children earning $150,000 or less will receive a total of $2,400.Since the US Internal Revenue Service already has taxpayers’ bank account information, it will transfer the money to them via direct deposit.