LessCash step by Konkan Railway - Electronically Generated Vouchers

            One of the major pain points in Indian trains is the incorrect rates charged for food and snack items.  Theoretically each vendor should carry with him/her an Item List clearly indicating the rate. However, in reality this rarely happens.

            To overcome this pain point, Konkan Railway recently introduced the concept of EGVs (Electronically Generated Vouchers) in the trains run on its route.

With effect from last wek, passengers on KRCL trains have started getting the said vouchers. This will ensure that the food items are charged by the caterer as per the approved rates of the KRCL.

Konkan Railway introduced the service in Mandovi Express and Konkankanya Express trains as a trial basis.  The service will be tried out first in AC coaches of the two trains and later extended to other coaches and other trains depending upon its success.

The hand held compact and rugged Electronic Voucher Distribution machine, which has large memory, will print a system generated bill which will be given to the passengers on purchase of any food item. Of course, tips are an integral part of our culture.    

    

The bill will have name of the caterer and date and time of purchase.

The passengers can enjoy the charm on Diet Food too. 

Safe ePayments Booster 2 – Indian Railways Go India Card

            Another step towards LessCash society.

            For the last one month or so, Indian Railways Go India Card was in the testing stage. Northern Railways was the chosen division for the test phase.

Minister of Railways, Shri S.D.Sadananda Gowda formally launched the Go India Card at a function in Mumbai on 13th August.

GO India Card is a pan India smart card to enable passengers to pay for tickets for long distance reserved, unreserved, and suburban journeys as a pilot project.

            The chief features of Go India Smart Card are:

• It can be used a nominated UTS counters and Automatic Ticket Vending Machines (ATVMs) and nominated PRS counters for reserved tickets
• It is a contact-less smart card: no need to swipe or insert into a slot.
• The pilot project to be implemented on the following two sectors:

a)    New Delhi – Howrah sector at 6 stations.: New Delhi, Kanpur, Allahabad, Dhanbad, Asansol, Howrah

b)   New Delhi – Mumbai sector at 6 stations: New Delhi, Kota, Vadodara, Ratlam, Surat, Mumbai Central.

• Initially, the card can be issued by paying Rs. 70/- where passenger can get Rs. 20/- balance. After that the card can be recharged for Rs. 20/- or in multiples of Rs. 50/- up to Rs. 5000/-. Maximum limit can be Rs. 10,000/-.
• Go-India smart card has lifetime validity.
• Go India Smart Card can be utilized to for hassle-free purchase of all modes of rail tickets in the pilot sectors.
• Go-India Smart Card will be used for Indian Railway application i.e. Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS), Passenger Reservation System (PRS) and Retiring Room (RR) counters and existing Automatic Ticket Vending Machines (ATVM)s. 

• In the future, Go India Smart Card will be rolled out to all parts of India.

• Go-India smart card will be a separate card from existing ATVM smart card. Go-India smart card can be used across UTS, PRS, RR and existing ATVM of Indian Railway but existing ATVM smart card can be used o­nly across ATVMs of that region. 
• Go-India smart card is interoperable across various applications and UTS thin clients can work in disconnected mode for 3 days hence issuance of duplicate card will be allowed o­nly after 3 days i.e. 3 days excluding the day to mark card for duplicate.
• Validity of Go-India smart card will unlimited but, if no transaction are done within 6 months on Go-India smart card then smart card will be temporary deactivated which can be activated again by paying Rs. 50/- as activation charge. 
• At the time of issuance/recharge of Go-India smart card, actual amount will be top-up o­n smart card and discount will be given on face value of UTS tickets instead of existing bonus logic used for ATVM smart card. 
• Currently, passengers are allowed to take non-concessional journey ticket, platform ticket and renew non-concessional season ticket through ATVM. 
• However, there is no bonus advantage given on renewal of season ticket and journey tickets in non-suburban section beyond 150 KMs through ATVM kiosks.
• On  Go-India Smart card at ATVMs/UTS counters, instead of giving bonus advantage, discount (5%) will be given on ticket face value and passenger can take non-concessional season ticket through UTS counters also but as per policy, passenger will get discount o­n suburban journey ticket, non-suburban journey ticket upto 150 KMs, platform ticket o­nly, BPT ticket, miscellaneous ticket and money receipts will not be allowed through Go-India smart card. 
• In case of PRS/RR tickets, there is no bonus/discount advantage given at the time of booking and during booking/issuance of ticket, ticket fare/amount will be directly debit from the Go-India smart card.
• Tuning into the life-style changes of the public, the Go-India Smart card would afford rail passengers advantages like avoiding problems of Coin Change and save valuable passenger time (queue time).  

Bharatiya Mahila Banks joins the RuPay Bandwagon

            Last week, Bharatiya Mahila Bank launched BMB RuPay Debit Card with EMV chip. In the first phase itself, BMB and NPCI decided to launch the RuPay Card with the EMV chip. This eliminates the need to migrate from MagStripe cards to EMV cards at a later date.

            In the coming months, BMB’s new branches will open in Thane (W), Mumbai,  Dholpur, Rajasthan,Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, Alwar, Sector 31- Gurgaon,Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh),Agra (Uttar Pradesh).   

   

            Tenders have been floated for the associated works in the proposed new branches.

            The RuPay cards will be accepted at 1,75,000+ ATMs’ and 9,50,000+ POS Terminals spread all over the country.

           

            

Safe ePayment Booster 1 – State Bank of India’s Chhota ATM

            To our luck, Reserve Bank of India has had very futuristic plans to migrate from a Cash society to LessCash society.

            One of the major directions in this regard was issued in 2009, wherein RBI permitted Banks to offer the ‘Cash Withdrawal at Point-of-Sale (POS)’.

            Further impetus was added in September 2013, when RBI permitted ‘Cash withdrawal at Point of Sale (POS) - Prepaid Payment Instruments issued by banks’.

            In mid 2013, State Bank of India started rolling out cash withdrawal at its POS machines. Buoyed by its success, in 2014, it has taken the campaign to a new level.

            It has branded its POS terminals as Chhota ATM. Chhota means SMALL and the word Chhota ATM is simple to understand too.

            The charges have been kept to the minimum i.e 1% of the cash withdrawn with a minimum of Rs7.50/-. The merchant gains Rs5/- for every cash withdrawal made at his/her POS terminal.

            Apart from the service fee, the bonus is the shopping done by the customers. Spur of the moment shopping is always beneficial to the shopkeeper.

            Yes, Go Now to your nearest SBI Chhota ATM. SBI is yet to operationalise Chhota ATM locators on its website.

            

Creation of Safe ePayment Hubs

            The following is submitted at MyGov.in

            One of the main reasons for low adoption of eTransctions in the rural areas is the absence of safe transaction environment. One way of overcoming the fear of unsafe transaction environment is to ensure safe transaction environment.

            I propose the following

            Setting up Safe ePayment Hubs manned by trained personnel.

            

The Safe ePayment Hubs can be set up in offices which have broadband connection as part of their minimal infrastructure setup.

  

         

Prospective locations are Post Offices, Administrative offices of Banks, Government offices etc.

            

The setup is as under:

01) Each hub to have a minimum of 3 high end computers

02)Each hub to have broadband connection

03)Only selected websites to be accessible at the Hub Pc

04)3 FA (3 Factor Authentication)

a)    1^st Factor – something the user knows

b)   2^nd Factor – something the user has

c)    3^rd Factor – something the user has

05)The hub to be protected from internet viruses and other threats