Biometric ATM cards powers Rural Banking for unlettered masses in India
Biometric ATM cards powers Rural Banking for unlettered masses in India
Infrastructure of Indian banks is rapidly expanding and the visible benefits of ICT ( Information, communication and technology) in day-to-day banking are well known. Common man is becoming quite used to ATMs and internet banking etc, are gradually finding its acceptance. RBI ( Reserve Bank of India) has been placing a lot of emphasis on financial inclusion covering no-frill accounts, rural bank branches, BC/BF models etc. Further, many pilot projects have been initiated in various States using smart cards for opening & operating bank accounts with biometric identification at people’s doorsteps.
Tripura, a North East Indian state, is at the forefront of such advances with programs like UID ( Unique ID) and BC ( Business Correspondent) models being deployed on a statewide basis. Tripura State Co-operative Bank, in furtherance of fulfilling its social responsibility of ensuring faster inclusive growth of weaker and poor sections of the society, has extended banking services to the identified beneficiaries of the MGNREGA through the Business Correspondent like M/s Indepay Networks Pvt. Ltd, by opening of no-frill accounts and by issuance of a biometric enabled smart card in the name of the beneficiaries through which the benefits of MGENREGA are to be passed to them.
The State of Tripura, with an annual NREGA allotment of over INR 500 crores ( USD 120 Million), has close to a million MGNREGA beneficiaries who receive employment through the program. In addition to MGNREGA beneficiaries the state has a further quarter of a million beneficiaries of National Old Age Pension (NOAP), Social Security Pension (SSP) and other similar programs. Indepay with its biometric enabled, UID compliant MicroATM infrastructure is addressing these opportunities by leveraging its nationwide rural payments infrastructure.
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Indepay, a leading global payment processor, is delivering last mile connect through biometric enabled, UID ( unique ID) compliant MicroATM infrastructure. Indepay have deployed manpower to familiarise rural masses who are NREGA beneficiaries with the technology so that the unlettered masses can encash their money as per their requirement.
This last mile infrastructure also enables the bank to extend financial assistance such as small credit to fulfill other credit needs of the beneficiaries and other banking services, micro insurance, financial products and non-financial services as may be required by the beneficiaries / card holders through its wide network of branches / offices in the State through the Bank’s duly appointed Banking Correspondent(s) as per the guidelines of the RBI.
Krishan Sujan, Director, Indepay Networks, said, “Indepay has carried out extensive evaluation of Rural Banking systems and plans to address the problems associated with last mile infrastructure, connectivity in rural locations and the issues related to citizens being non-literate and non-numerate through its innovative infrastructure offering.”
Indepay’s Biometric smart card and infrastructure solution can now enable and operate, an extended Rural banking Branch in each village and panchayat in the state where banking services will be extended to each citizen of the state within a few kilometres of their residence as per RBI guidelines for the BC model.
This infrastructure will also help to act as points for sourcing Rural Credit and Micro Housing Finance for the citizens of the state in addition to including the unbanked into the Banking system.
The Tripura model will replicated by Indepay which plans to deploy real time, online, UID enabled infrastructure throughout the state and make Tripura a model state for the rest of India to follow. The Indepay ecosystem of BCs will enable non-financial services such as Rail/Air Ticketing, Utilities Bill Payments including Electricity, Telephone and Municipal Taxes in addition to mobile airtime recharge making the BC model viable and scalable.
IWrite to Suparnasingh05@yahoo.com for more
Source: ArticlesBase.com
