Mizoram at the helm of rural banking project

Aizawl, Apr 15 (UNI) At least four villages in Mizoram can now boast of being at the helm of rural banking initiative, with mobile phones being used instead of ATMs to connect banks to their rural customer base.

Incidentally, it took 15 years for ATMs to reach Mizoram, after being launched in India in 1987.

In a pilot project initiated by SBI last November in three states - Mizoram, Uttarakhand and Andhra Pradesh, over 5,000 rural people are using biometric smart cards to avail banking facilities that store the user's thumb-print information.

Thanks to one such card, Helen Laltluangi, a resident of Sihphir village in Aizawl's outskirts, can now simply turn up at the house of Rochhungi, who also doubles up as cash dispensers.

Rochhungi, a 51-year-old widow, is a customer service provider, a link between the bank and consumers. Helen swipes her card on Rochhungi's mobile phone - a typical phone, except that it has a biometric sensor.

The phone uses radio waves to read the signals from the card.

These signals are sent via General Packet Radio Service to a main server. Within seconds, the consumer's details are verified from the account.

A Little World - a private limited company, is proving the technological know-how for the project and in Sihphir alone has already registered about 602 customers.

According to state project director A M S Denial, over 2,600 transactions have already been made, thanks to over 1,200 customers in Mizoram who have swiped, credited and debited about Rs 4.5 lakh.

While it is making life easier for the villagers, it is also making extra money for people.

Assistant general manager of SBI Aizawl branch Mukul Ch Jeishi said that the project is a spin-off of RBI's Financial Inclusion project. Under this, RBI has asked banks to reach out to people who have not yet benefitted - primarily in the areas where it's difficult to maintain branches and ATMs.

''The northeast makes a good starting points as bank penetration is extremely low and with this system we save substantially on transportation costs, setting up ATMs and maintaining them,'' Mr Jeishi added.

UNI