Bharat Patel, 45, doesn't pick up cash when he goes to the local fair price shop in Mooldharai village, about 180 km from Gujarat's capital Gandhinagar. His thumb impression on the biometric machine is enough; it debits the bill from his bank account. "Now this digital mode takes care of the payment," says Mr Patel. This is how many people in this village shop for their fortnightly rations. And in 52 other villages that come under Bhavnagar district's Vallabhipur taluka, the first in the country where every household has a bank account seeded with an Aadhaar number.