India on Sunday rolled out 75 digital banking units in villages and small towns across the country to bring financial services and literacy to more citizens.
Set up in partnership with over 20 public and private banks, the digital banking units are brick-and-mortar outlets equipped with tablets and internet services to help individuals and small businesses open their savings accounts, on by the government access and conduct checks on identified systems, transact business, and obtain credit and insurance.
The physical outlets, which will span all Indian states and union territories, will offer services in two ways. “The self-service mode will be available 24x7x365 days,” Shakktanta Das, governor of the Reserve Bank of India, said in a virtual conference. “Banks are also free to use the services of digital business facilities and correspondence to expand the footprint of DBUs,” he said.
That said, the units will also offer a digital help zone to respond to inquiries from individuals and small businesses and to hear their grievances.
Accessing banking services has traditionally been a struggle for people living in villages and small towns, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said. Although there are more than a billion bank accounts in India, people living in remote areas have typically had to take a day off from work to visit a nearby city for their banking work.
“Our top priority is to ensure that banking services reach the last mile,” he said. “We have not only eliminated the physical distance, but above all the psychological distance.”
The digital banking units are part of the Modi government’s years-long effort to serve the people in the country’s most remote areas. The government launched Jan Dhan Yojana, a program in 2014 to give all citizens access to banking and financial services. More than 470 million bank accounts have been opened under the program.
“Today, the whole country is witnessing the power of Jan Dhan Bank’s accounts,” Modi said. “This opened the way for loans to the poor with no collateral and allowed direct transfer of benefits to target beneficiary accounts. These accounts were the key modality for the provision of housing, toilets, gas subsidies, and the benefits of the schemes to farmers could be seamlessly secured. The IMF has praised India’s digital banking infrastructure. Credit goes to the poor, farmers and workers of India who have embraced new technology and made it a part of their lives,” he said.
