‘Go India’ Rail Smart Card to be finally live. A competitor to eRail Wallet!!

Will the ‘Go India’ Rail Smart Card, be a competitor for IRCTC eRail Wallet. Well, only time will tell.

            The ‘Go India’ smart card ticket project was announced in the Railway Budget 2011-12 by Ms.Mamta Banerjee.

            Railways are in the final stages of launching a pilot run, hopefully by this year end. A pilot run is necessary to stabilize the operational part and to minimize customer complaints  in the final rollout.

The IT arm of the Indian Railways i.e ‘The Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS)’, is in the process of fine-tuning the software for the Smart Card.

In the pilot run, the Smart Cards can be used to buy tickets on the busy Delhi-Howrah and Delhi-Mumbai routes. Naturally, the Smart Cards can also be used on the Kolkata Metro, as the Railway minister belongs to West Bengal. However, Kolkata Metro will be covered in the second phase.

The pilot run is scheduled for one year, and depending on the response, this can be rolled-out Pan India.

As per the current thought process, through the ‘Go India’ Rail Smart Card, one can book reserved and unreserved tickets rail ticket booking counters, automatic ticketing vending machines (ATVM) and also through the Internet.

            All major stations like Kanpur, Allahabad and Dhanbad in Delhi-Howrah route and Baroda and Surat in Delhi-Mumbai sector will have facilities for using Go-India card.

            The agreement with a nationalized bank will be shortly signed, to make ‘Go India’ Rail Smart Card operational. Which nationalized bank will have the tie-up with Indian railways? My choice is State Bank of India or Union Bank of India.

            The ‘Go India’ Rail Smart Card, will be a semi-closed eWallet.

            As of now, the major difference visible between ‘Go India’ Rail Smart Card and IRCTC eRail Wallet, is that the eRail Wallet can only be used on IRCTC website, whereas the ‘Go India’ Rail Smart Card can be used offline as well as online.

            The more the merrier, as the customers will be ultimate beneficiaries.

            Re-disseminated by Prashant N. Banker by daytime, Blogger by night.

Who will be the major client of Yes Bank IMPS-MPS?

IMPS-Merchant Payment Service pilot launch with Yes Bank

            Yes Bank was one of the banks who were in the Pilot Launch of IMPS in November 2010. Taking this tradition forward, Yes Bank has also joined the Pioneer Club for the IMPS Merchant Payment Service.

            Yes Bank joined the IMPS Merchant Payment Service last month i.e August 2012. With this, Yes Bank would now be able to offer this new ePayment mode to their ‘Cash Management Services’ clients.

IMPS-MPS will be beneficial for Accounts Receivables more than Accounts Payables teams.

            HSBC, State Bank of India, Canara Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Union Bank of India are the banks which are already online with IMPS-MPS.

            State Bank of India’s’ major client is IRCTC. HSBC’s major client is Reliance Mutual Fund. With reference to other banks, at present, no information is available in the public domain.  

            

Cash Retraction in Indian ATM’s finally withdrawn. Collect Cash before leaving the ATM!!!!!!!

            Due to the rising of frauds in India on the cash retraction facility in India, the Indian regulators were looking at various alternatives to minimize such instances.

            A detailed discussion took place in the NFS steering committee meeting held on 07/04/2011. One of the suggestions received was to disable the ATM retraction facility. As this was a new step, a pilot run was conducted on selected ATM’s.

          As expected, not a single complaint on cash retraction was received by member banks. On the basis of the pilot run feedback, NPCI sought RBI’s approval to adopt the disabling of ATM retraction facility across Pan-India ATM’s.

            RBI agreed to the NPCI’s proposal and communicated their acceptance vide Lr.No.DPSS.CO.PD NO1230/02.07.2011/2011-12 dt.09/01/2012.

    

        The initial deadline for the member banks to disable the cash retraction in their respective ATM’s was 31/03/2012. Subsequently, it was extended to August 31^st, 2012.

            With the August31st, 2012 deadline too over, all Banks in India, have disabled the cash retraction facility in their ATM’s.

            This step was disseminated to the bank customers vide SMS’s, Notice Board messages, messages in Statement of Accounts.

            The press too widely reported this new service. Majority of the banks have also highlighted this on their websites eg:- Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, SVC Bank, Indian Overseas Bank. Plus, by the word-of-mouth publicity, the message would have spread across the banking customers.

            The cash disbursement at the ATM’s depends on the model of the particular ATM. In some ATMs, there is a Cash dispenser, wherein the cash falls into the dispenser. In some ATM’s, the money remains at the mouth of the ATM, which the customer has to take it.

Ideally, the cash in all ATMs’ should have a cash dispenser, wherein the cash falls into it and the customer collects it from there.  

What is Cash Retraction?

SMS based Political Donations – Is America ahead of India?

This Newsflash from Finextra.com ‘Obama campaign taps payvia for text message-based donations’, motivated me to write this blog post.

          In the run-up to the US Presidential elections, the Presidential candidates are searching new ePayments modes to attract donations to their campaigns.

         

          Obama’s donation campaign via SMS messages is one such mode.

This is in addition to the Card donations via Square, which both Obama and his opponent Mitt Romney have already launched.

          If readers remember Aamir Khan’s ‘Satyamev Jayate’, one of the modes for fund raising was through SMS messages.

          The campaign was fairly successful and apart from the funds collected, the ePayment mode attracted attention around the world.  As on date, no other Indian NGO or Political party has adopted this ePayments mechanism.

         

          Hence, it was a bit of surprise, to note that Obama’s campaign team has adopted the SMS Message mode to attract donations from supporters. The same approach is expected to be adopted by Mitt Romney’s team.

          The first instance of SMS being utilized for a major fund raising program was for Haiti January 2010 earthquake victims.

          The 2012 American Presidential elections will be the first major political event to innovatively tap the power of SMS based donations.

          The chief variation between the Indian and the American model is that in India, Donations can be made via the Prepaid or the Postpaid plans. In America, the donations can be made only on the Post paid plans.

          Another difference between the Satyamajayate campaign and the American campaign is the cap on the maximum amount.

The maximum cap was Re1/- in India, whereas in America for political donations it is $10 a message and $50 a month.

         

          The USAs’ FEC (Federal Election Commission) had approved this new ePayments mode only in June 12, and within a very short time, the American political parties have adopted it.

          The TAT time or the Pass-through window, during the Haitian campaign was 90 days. Hopefully, with recent technological developments, the 90 days timeframe will shrink to 20-30days.

          Which Indian Party will adopt this ePayments mode first?

          Unique Indian requirements:-

01)   ‘cancel’, future payments option.

02)  Post paid plan – In case the bill is overdue/not paid by the consumer, what will be the status of the SMS donation?

Any other requirements to be kept in mind?

Issue of Multicity / Payable at All Branches Cheques by CBS enabled Banks

                95% of India’s Public Sector Bank Branches/Private Sector Bank Branches/Foreign Bank Branches are on the CBS.

            To enable the bank customers to take full advantage of the CBS capabilities, RBI has advised All Scheduled Commercial Banks including RRBs /Urban Co-operative Banks / State Co-operative Banks /District Central Co-operative Banks, to pro-actively issue Multicity cheques.

         

                 Way back in 2007, RBI had advised Banks, that the facility of "payable at par" / "multi-city" cheques should be issued to all the eligible and requesting customers.

            Over the years, the feedback to RBI was that banks were not encouraging PAP/Multicity cheques.

                 Primary reasons for not encouraging PAP/Multicity cheques were

                    01) Decrease in float income on the CASA balances

                   02)Increase in fraudulent transactions in PAP cheques. Here, Bank customers to have a role.

The primary blocks were PAP cheques with value cap, PAP cheques only to HNI customers or levying service charges when the PAP cheques are cleared at non base-city locations.   

    However, keeping in view the enhanced infrastructure in Clearing Process and with CTS extending its scope, RBI has advised to issue only "payable at par" / "multi-city" CTS 2010 Standard cheques to all eligible customers.

           As the PAP cheques will be cleared as Local cheques in the clearing houses, no extra charges should be levied on customers.

            To minimize the associated risks, Banks have to have appropriate Board approved risk management procedures based on risk categorization of accounts

  Banks to host the updated Board approved policy on their web-site of banks and forward a copy thereof forwarded to RBI, DPSS.

           

        Issuing only PAP cheques will reduce the cheques under Speed Clearing and also reduce the TAT for clearance of the cheques. In the long run, all the players will prefer to move to ePayments, as further efficiencies are in ePayments.

           

Re-disseminated by Prashant N. Banker by daytime-Blogger by night.