Villagers get smart cards

Pune based information technology company DSK Digital has rolled out a project to issue smart cards to the residents of Velu village in Maharashtra's Pune district as part of the financial inclusion process steered by Central Bank of India CBI).  The initiative is under the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) mandate to bring every citizen of the country in the banking network. A large number of funds are allotted by the Government of India to the people who are living below the poverty line. But, it is usually seen that there is a large scale pilferage of these funds. Issue of smart cards will not only help credit the funds straight into the accounts of the beneficieries but also create their 'banking history' which will make them eligible for various credit schemes of the government.  RBI has chosen Khopi as a model village to implement financial inclusion initiative by opening of bank accounts for beneficiaries. Closely monitored by RBI and CBI, the project was started in February with the help of DSK Mobilis. More than 300 villagers have opened accounts in CBI under this project until now. These accounts are no frill accounts i.e. zero balance accounts without any deposit.  DSK Digital has produced smart cards using its in-house integrated technology platform for the device DSK Mobilis. These smart cards were distributed to villagers by Chief General Manager-in charge RPCD of RBI, Deepali Pant Joshi.  "The banks have come to the doorsteps of villagers because opening bank branches in every village is not practical. The smart cards will introduce financial literacy in Khopi and increase the bank's daily transactions," Joshi said.  DSK Digital Chairperson Hemanti Kulkarni said, "Villagers will have simple and direct access to all the funds from government due to this RBI project. This will make the bank transactions easy and safe. This account can also be used for all day to day transactions. All the villagers will get a hassle free access to their financial accounts if this project is implemented throughout many villages".  Vinod Phillips, Head, Business Operations at DSK Digital said, "DSK Mobilis has an integrated GPS, GPRS services. An inbuilt camera takes the picture of the account holder, while finger prints are scanned by inbuilt finger print scanner. This entire enrollment process takes mere 180 seconds."  The responsibility of enrollment, verification and account transaction has been entrusted to DSK Digital. DSK Mobilis application supports all activities related to user enrollment, registration, remittance, disbursement, OD, loan etc. In addition, the device runs completely on solar power. Smart card slots in the DSK Mobilis are used to make transactions and a printed receipt is given to the account holder after the transaction. As finger prints of the account holder is verified using this technology, nobody besides the account holder can use the smart card".  DSK Digital will also implement smart card projects in 83 villages of Ahmednagar district, trgetting 1.25 lakh accounts, Phillips said.

TOI