RuPay: India’s Own Card Brand

There are 225 Million ATM cards in India, of which 90 Million are from a single Bank- State Bank of India, 0.55 Million merchants have PoS machines, Rs 3000 Crore is being dispensed every day from ATM machines. We are using American Branded Visa and Master Cards for all these. How much money they are making from giving their technology and brand name? What is the volume of personal financial data is getting transferred to US every day? So there comes an idea of India’s own card brand- RuPay.

NPCI- National Payment Corporation of India is a section 25 non profit organization formed by RBI and other Indian Banks. To bring the competition in cards, reduce the cost of card payments and card issuance and most importantly to secure the data within the nation NPCI has brought its own brand of card called RuPay. Already 12 co-operative banks and Regional Rural Banks are using the RuPay ATM cards, which can be used to withdraw cash from ATMs. By the end of March 2012, debit card will be launched using the flat form of Axis Bank and SBI as acquirer (bank to which PoS machines belongs to) and issuer of cards and Union Bank of India and Bank of India as card issuer. RuPay card holder can do shopping by April 2012. It will be ready for online transactions i.e. ecommerce by June 2012.

Apart from the main stream card business RuPay is also concentrating on financial inclusion. Adhar enabled biometric cards are being issued in Jarkhand by Axis Bank, Bank of India and SBI. RBI has given permission to 18 prepaid card service provider to issue prepaid cards with easy KYC to non bank customers and migrant labours.

RuPay will not be just an domestic card. RuPay has tie up with Discover Cards which is a neutral player for Indian market and 3rd largest card issuer (Visa and Master occupy first two positions and Amex occupy the position next to Discover. RuPay cost is 50% lesser than the Visa and Master cards which are dominating Indian market.

Also read A cashless life to come soon! about the mobile payment system developed by NCPI.

Rajiv Gandhi and his relationships with KGB!

The base for this heading is a book called ‘The State Within A State: The KGB and its hold on Russia - Past, Present and Future’. This book is written by Dr. Yevgenia Markovna Albats, a famous Russian investigative journalist, chief editor of The New Times magazine.

The page No 223 of the book is very important for us, the Indians. It exposes the former Prime Minister Mr. Rajiv Gandhi and boosts the arguments that Mrs Antonio Maino aka Sonia Gandhi’s relationships with the KGB. The author writes “A letter signed by Viktor Chebrikov, who replaced Andropov as the KGB head in 1982 noted: "the USSR KGB maintains contact with the son of the Premier Minister Rajiv Gandhi [of India] ... R Gandhi expresses deep gratitude for the benefits accruing to the Prime Minister's family from the commercial dealings of the firm he controls in co-operation with the Soviet foreign trade organisations. R Gandhi reports confidentially that a substantial portion of the funds obtained through this channel are used to support the party of R Gandhi.” She does not simply writes these words, she gives the reference for this at page No. 380 as ‘25. KGB Archive f 5 op. 6. por. No. 12. D. 131. t. 1 1.d 103-104.’

She cited KGB notes describing "commercial dealings" of Rajiv Gandhi's family with Soviet foreign trade. She tells Rajiv Gandhi and his party were been paid by a Russian Company. It is well-known that there was Sonia Gandhi’s hand in every Indo—Soviet trade deal and defence purchases. That’s why Gandhi family needed Swiss Bank accounts. Obviously the person who brought Rajiv Gandhi to KGB contact is his girl fried then his wife Sonia Gandhi. She was also alleged to be the member of KGB and been appointed to trap Rajiv Gandhi.

It is not a new finding for the Indian Media. Times of India (June 27, 1992) and Hindu (July 4, 1992) reported regarding receipt of payments from KGB by Rajiv Gandhi and his family. I don’t think Mrs Albats’ book and her citation can be a cooked up story. Another reason to believe Mrs Albats is she was an official member of the Soviet government’s KGB Commission and had access to many KGB documents. Even Indian government can now obtain the copies of these documents.But nobody is raising their voice expect Subramanian Swamy of Janata Party. It is shameful for Indians to have people who have/had the relationship with the foreign spy agencies at the top positions of the country.

What’s Right Isn’t Always Popular…

I was going through an online course developed by my organisation on decision making and found this story very interesting on making decision. I'm giving it as it is I found somewhere in the internet.

A few children were playing on two railway tracks, one still in use while the other disused. Only one child played on the track not in use, the rest on the operational track. The train is coming, and you are just beside the track interchange. You can make the train change its course to the disused track and save most of the kids. However, that would also mean the lone child playing by the disused track would be sacrificed. Or would you rather let the train go its way? Also remember that you don't have time to inform either the children playing there or the locomotive pilot to stop the train. You have to choose from the only above two option.

Before going further please take a pause, make your answer ready.

Let us see the decision you took is right or not.

If you have taken the decision to divert the train to unused track, to save most of the children at the expense of only one child you have definitely taken a popular decision as most of others take.

But, have you ever thought that the child choosing to play on the disused track had in fact made the right decision to play at a safe place? Why should he had to be sacrificed because of his ignorant friends who chose to play where the danger was? The kids playing on the operational track should have known very well that track was still in use, and that they should have run away if they heard the train's sirens. If the train was diverted, that lone child would definitely die because he never thought the train could come over to that track! Moreover, that track was not in use probably because it was not safe. If the train was diverted to the track, we could put the lives of all passengers on board at stake! And in your attempt to save a few kids by sacrificing one child, you might end up sacrificing hundreds of people to save these few ignorant kids.

"Remember that what's right isn't always popular and what's popular isn't always right."

A cashless life to come soon!

The information given here is derived from the address by Managing Director of NCPI Mr A P Hota to SBI POs at State Bank Institute of Information and Communication Management on 4 Feb 2012

"Make a pan (Beetle Leaves and nuts) with extra Gulkun"
Panwala prepares the pan
"Take it sir"
"How much?"
"Rs 8"
You pay Rs 100 note.
"Sorry sir, I dont have change. Can you please credit to Mob No 9876543210, MMID 123456?"

Be prepared to face it. India is going to change, rural India is adopting cost effective convenient technologies. Get your mobile banking service soon, be registered for mobile payments and be sure you are not a financially illiterate in front of your Panwala or a Vegetable Seller. Now let us see how you can pay that Panwala. It is possible immediately within 30 seconds through Inter bank Mobile Payment Service (IMPS), a unique concept of mobile based account to account funds transfer, which is the brain child of National Payment Corporation of India- NCPI. Inter bank Mobile Payment Service enables one to send money to another bank account using the mobile number and MMID of the receiver. MMID is a unique number called Mobile Money Identifier given to every account holder having IMPS. So what you need to do is just open your mobile banking application, select fund transfer, then IMPS, enter the amount to be transferred, the payee's mobile number and his MMID. Confirm the payment using your PIN, within 30 seconds payee gets and SMS telling stating that he has got the credit in the account from you. The payments completed and you can walk away without arguing for changes of soiled noted.

The PoS payments in the rural areas could not penetrate much due to the cost involved in it. There are 225 million ATM cards are issued, where 90 million cards are issued by SBI alone. But the availability of PoS merchants is as less as 0.55 million. Merchant need to install a machine, and then he has to pay commission for every payment which ranges between Rs 1.20 to Rs 2.50. But the mobile payment system is absolutely free of charge. It can be even used for usual fund transfers. Advantages of IMPS are availability at 24x7x365 days irrespective of a bank holiday, no need to share your bank accounts with the person who sends the money, confirmation of the transaction to both the parties, hence fool proof. Many bank accounts can be linked to single mobile number using different MMIDs. MMID helps the error free transfer of money by matching with the mobile number. You can do a lot with IMPS viz mobile to mobile money transfer (don't get confused, both the parties should have a bank account), ATM to mobile money transfer, Merchant payments etc. This is the fastest inter bank fund transfer service available at present.

Visit National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)to know more. To register to mobile banking and MMID contact your bank.