The programme involves end-to-end digitization of transactions and other commercial activities, providing vocational training to villagers, extending credit facility and helping the villagers to access markets and earn a sustainable livelihood.
Ms. Kochhar also announced the expansion of the initiative to another 500 villages, “We intend to expand the number of such villages by another 500 by December 2017. In that process, we will train another 50,000 people and affect 12.5 lives.”
The villagers here can use digital channels for banking and payments transactions.
They can also open a bank account using Aadhaar-based e-KYC, making cashless payments at retail stores using Point-of-sale (POS) machines, and use an SMS based mobile solution. Villagers can also deposit and withdraw cash at their doorstep.
The bank has provided an SMS-based mobile service which facilitates the villagers to transfer funds, receive SMS alerts & mini-statements to know their account balance. It is available in 10 regional languages- Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil and Telegu.
Besides that, over 206 POS and micro-ATMs have been installed across these villages.
The villages are present in 17 states; 16 in