Zip Zoom Zap through Indian Toll Plazas

            The major irritation on India’s Expressways is the waiting time at the numerous toll gates dotting the India’s Expressways.

            The waiting time translates into higher fuel bill for the automobiles travelling on the expressways. Individually the loss will be less, but when added for the whole number of vehicles waiting the Toll Plazas, the number runs into crores.

            Abroad the concept of RFID Tags for Toll Plaza collection is common. A similar concept has been introduced in India too.

            The CashLess option works on RFID-based smart tags — Fastags — for cashless transaction at toll plazas.

Vehicles fitted with the inter-operable tags don't need to wait in queue at plazas. In India the technology was first launched in April 2012 on the 10-km Himalayan Expressway,

On October 31^st 2014, Road transport minister Nitin  Gadkari inaugurated the ETC on the Delhi-Mumbai stretch of NH-8 on Friday. This is the longest stretch where ETC is being implemented in a big scale.

Mumbaikars can experience the benefits of CashLess Toll collections on the Bandra Worli Sea Link.

The ETC system will work on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, with a tag called FASTag plastered on the vehicle which will contain the unique identification number associated with the vehicle.

A separate lane, called FASTag lane, equipped with sensors is being designed on all toll plazas by the respective concessionaires. Users of the tag, once enrolled in the system, will have an online account which they can charge in advance.

When they pass the toll plaza, the tag will be read by the sensors without the vehicle needing to stop.

The sensors will then transmit the unique vehicle code to the central servers of the bank that issued the FASTag.

The appropriate toll charge would be deducted from the user’s online account. In order to prevent theft of the tag, it has been designed in a manner such that, once attached to the vehicle, it will suffer damage and be rendered unusable if removed.

The customers can get Fastags recharged online and can also get instant alerts about usage and balance amount.

There would be a challenge to ensure that Non-tagged vehicles do not enter the Tag Lanes.

In this regard, the road transport ministry will soon notify penalty of charging two-times toll from vehicles that enter tag lanes without Fastag. This is necessary to ensure that vehicles fitted with tags don't get caught behind non-tag vehicles.

The major benefits of CashLess Toll Plaza Collections are:

·         Plug revenue leakages from toll collection

·         Track vehicles in case of criminal incidences.

·         The real time data on traffic movement on highways will help government to prepare road development plans.

·         The road side vendors will see a spurt in their income, as the motorists would now spend more time at their shops, rather than at the toll plazas

Aadhaar Based Attendance System – All India Launch

            Biometric attendance tools are a familiar sight amongst Indian offices, both Government and Private.

            The main drawback of such localized biometric attendance tools is the need to invest substantially to make it beneficial. Also, the data generation was not in a standardized format.

            Realizing the need for a simple, cost effective Attendance Tool, Shri.Ram Sevak Sharma (Popularily known as Shri RS Sharma), during his tenure as Chief Secretary-Jharkand conceptualized an Attendance System based on Aadhaar Numbers.

            The prerequisite for the Aadhaar Based Attendance system is that the respective employee should have an Aadhaar number, a very basic requirement.

            The Aadhaar Based Attendance system was launched in January 14 in Jharkhand. Over the past few months, the system has been fine tuned and the All India launch was done in October 14.

            The roll-out is being spear headed by National Informatics Centre (NIC) under the guidance of Department of Electronics & Information Technology.

Yes, Shri RS Sharma is the Secretary of Department of Electronics & Information Technology.

The statistics as on Date are as under:-

Number of Organizations’ – 149

Number of Registered Employees – 58286

            The initial rollout will be Central Government Offices located in New Delhi. Gradually, the Biometric Attendance System will be rolled out across India. The present target audience is the Government employees only.

            Employees can mark their attendance through wall mounted bio-metric attendance terminals, finger print scanning devices or IRIS devices.

            Time taken to Record Attendance is as low as 1-2 Seconds on Wi-Fi and 8-11

Seconds on GPRS (SIM). Two modes are preferred as a backup.

            The System has an in-built leave management system wherein an employee can

be marked “on leave” so that the system recognizes him/her as on leave and does not send a late attendance SMS.

            

ETC to go live in India on October 31st, 2014

            The end is over, the test phase is over. Now it is time to go live.

On October31, 2014 Shri Nitin Gadkari, India’s Highway Minister will inaugurate the Electronic Toll Collection system

            Due to unavoidable issues, the launch was postponed from October 27 to October 31.

"The launching of the Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) system has been rescheduled. The Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways, Shri Nitin Gadkari will now inaugurate the system on October 31 instead of October 27," an official statement said.

            The pilot project for Interoperable ETC system of 10 toll plazas between Mumbai (Charoti) and Ahmedabad was successful and seamless ETC on this section is successfully in operation.

            The live roll-out is planned completed on the Delhi-Mumbai route via Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

            ETC has already been installed at 55 Toll Plazas and their integration with Central Clearing House (CCH) operators has almost been completed.

The central government has issued orders to incorporate ETC lanes as a mandatory clause in the contracts awarded for all the highways projects in future.

"Action will be taken to include ETC system by means of supplementary agreement in those projects which have not yet been started," the statement said.

Necessary amendments have already been made in the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989 for fitment of Radio Frequency Identification tag on vehicles for ETC.

In order to remove the bottlenecks and ensure seamless movement of traffic and collection of toll as per the notified rates, Government had constituted a committee on Electronic Toll Collection technology for use on National Highways under the chairmanship of Shri Nandan Nilekani, Ex-Chairman, Unique Identification Authority of India.

The Committee's mandate was to examine all technologies available for ETC and recommend the most suitable technology for local conditions. Considering user convenience, rate of acceptance and ease of implementation, the passive Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) based on EPC, Gen-2, ISO 18000-6C Standards for ETC technology was adopted by the Government.

Once the Toll Plaza is migrated to ECT mode, it will have a dedicated lane for RFID fitted vehicles.  A fine will be levied on Non-RFID vehicles entering the dedicated lane. This fine is expected to discourage non-RFID vehicles to migrate to RFID mode quickly.

The IHMCL core message is: “Experience the freedom of near non-stop movement through toll plazas and the convenience of cashless payment of toll with our nation-wide interoperable Electronic Toll Collection Services”.

Do you have tried out RuPay @ Flipkart, Amazon, Jet Airways, Snapdeal?

            India’s own Payment Gateway – RuPay is adding new online players to its portfolio. Diwali is the biggest motivator for Indians to purchase new goods. This year, the online players took the fight direct to the offline field, by launching mega offers.

            To gain the maximum traction, NPCI signed mega deals for RuPay to be accepted at major online eCommerce portals.

            The main advantage of RuPay cards from a Safe ePayments angle is that the cards are accepted only in India. Thus, RuPay cards do not attract the online criminals.

Sr No	Type of Bank	No of Banks issuing RuPay Cards
01	Public Sector Banks	26
02	Private Sector Banks	09
03	Cooperative and Gramin Banks	203

            Yes, now customers of Cooperative and Gramin Banks too can enjoy the joy of Online Shopping.  

            RuPay through its PaySecure features offers additional feature beyond RBI’s mandated 2 Factor Authentication. 

IIBF Clarification on Classroom coaching

            In the recent past, IIBF has introduced blended courses for the benefit of banking community. Blended courses comprise an Online Examination and a Classroom Learning workshop.

            The Classroom workshop can be taken only after the successful completion of the Online examination.

            To encourage the learners to complete the Classroom learning, IIBF has clarified that the same has to be completed within 15 months from the date of declaration of the results of the respective blended certification course.

            At present, the following are the Advanced Blended Certificate Courses:

1) Certified Bank Trainer

2) Certified Banking Compliance Professional

3) Certified Credit Officer

4) Certified Treasury Dealer

Well, in  case a candidate fails to complete the prescribed classroom learning within the stipulated period, in order to complete the course, the candidate would be required to RE-ENROLL himself/herself for the online examination foregoing the credit for the subject/s passed in the earlier online examination/s.

The rules are clear, so go ahead and plan your studies.