India is emerging as one of the world’s fastest growing smart card markets. The smart card market in India is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of around 15 per cent during 2012-12.
The potential areas for smart card applications include rapid transit system, Euro pay, Visa, saral money, Aadhar card and toll and parking cards. Population of over one billion and increasing modern areas make India a promising market.
Users can get the saral money debit card from grocery shops and bank branches for a nominal fee. As of now it’s not clear how much the bank or the business correspondent will charge for the pre-paid card. Users need to produce their Aadhar card for biometric validation. Once validated, they can load cash into the prepaid card, or receive cash transfers from the government and payments from individuals who have an Aadhaar Card.
“I am delighted to be at the launch of Saral Money and thank all the partners for their efforts in developing this innovative product. This initiative will not only help the financially undeserved to access formal banking processes, but will also serve as a benchmark for many more initiatives in making India a self-sustainable developed economy", said Mr. Nandan Nilekani, Chairman, Unique Identification Authority of India.
The saral money debit card users can withdraw their money from any ATM, any Micro ATM using biometric authentication provided by Aadhar, through a bank branch, or access their money through the internet and mobile phones, and make payments. The Visa network integrates and links the different systems being operated by banks with the Aadhar database, hence the system is bank and region agnostic and can be implemented with all banks and in all regions.
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