A host of government initiatives are piggybacking on the nationwide PCO network that Sam Pitroda conceived

Come 2003 and you can walk into the nearest PCO wallah, flash your 32-KB chip and complete your banking transaction.

Hold on, if you thought this was some new service that banks in India are going to launch. Thank the department of information technology (DIT) and the Reserve Bank of India instead, which plans to roll out these services as part of its financial application based pilot project for smart card implementation in India.

In fact, the RBI has also decided to issue a speciaA host of government initiatives are piggybacking on the nation-wide PCO network Sam Pitroda conceivedl directive enabling 22,500 PCOs across the country to act as multifunctional service delivery points (SDPs). As per earlier RBI guidelines, only banks can function as SDPs. However, the decision to amend this rule was taken keeping in mind the high penetration and accessibility factors of PCOs that are essential for the success of this roll out.

The pilot project proposes to upgrade 22,500 PCOs to act as multifunctional service delivery points (SDPs) having smart cards based payment system and acting as franchises of various banks. Each PCO booth would be upgraded with a telephone terminal, an Internet appliance, and two pocket sized e-purse-only terminals.

The respective PCO owners will have accounts with a bank where they will deposit the cash thus collected, and will be paid a service charge in lieu. The project is primarily aimed at benefiting the poorest of the poor—a bhaji walih for instance, can go to any of these PCOs authorized by the banks as an outlet and complete her transaction. She may chose to pay back her loan on a daily basis, instead of the normal monthly EMI that usually is difficult to pay for most people below the poverty line.

Shubhendu Parth and Sudarshana Banerjee
CNS

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