Hughes India Connects 12,000 Plus ATMs and Bank Branches
VARINDIA- INDIA'S FRONTLINE IT MAGAZINE
Hughes
Communications India Limited (HCIL) has connected over 12,000 off-site
ATMs and rural bank branches with a secure broadband satellite network
in 2014. Valued at INR 300 million, the new contracts were awarded to
Hughes by eight different banks including Punjab National Bank, HDFC
Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Bank of Baroda, IDBI Bank, Dena Bank,
Punjab & Sind Bank, and Odissa Gramya Bank.
Shivaji
Chatterjee, head of Enterprise Business at HCIL said, “One of the
biggest bottlenecks facing development in India is the lack of financial
inclusion for the masses in under-served areas. As the leading provider
of VSAT connectivity in India, Hughes has been at the forefront in
helping fulfill Prime Minister Modi’s mission (Jan Dhan Yojana) to put
development on the fast track by ensuring that almost every Indian
across 600,000 villages has access to banking services. It is a proud
moment for us as we add another 12,000 off-site ATMs and rural bank
branches to India’s growing banking network, thereby ensuring that the
government is a few steps closer to ensuring that every Indian is within
15 minutes walking distance to a bank or an ATM by 2016.”
Given
the size of its population, India has one of the lowest ATM densities
in the world with only 25.4 ATM machines for every 1,000 sq. km. This
translates into 8.9 ATMs for every half million (5 lakh) population,
according to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data outlining global financial
inclusion indicators for 2011. In contrast, bank customers in China
have access to 2,975 machines in the same geographical expanse, with
49.6 ATMs per half million (5 lakh) population.
To
date, the total number of ATMs and bank branches connected by Hughes
satellite networking is approximately 50,000. The Ministry of Finance
and a consortium of public sector banks in India entered into a contract
with multiple ATM Managed Service Providers for installing and managing
a total of 63,000 offsite and onsite ATMs across urban and rural India,
by far one of the largest initiatives adopted by the Indian Government
to widen the reach of banking facilities. ATM penetration in India is
expected to continue on the path of high growth and reach an estimated
200,000 ATMs by 2016.
|
Comments
Post a Comment