It looks like Bharti Airtel is prepping up to enable cash withdrawals via mobile, by partnering with various banks in India, according to a report by Business Standard. We're not sure if this would be an extension of the company's Airtel Money service, which is a semi-close mobile wallet. The report mentions that Airtel is currently in discussion with various banks to launch the service under which, Airtel stores will act as banking correspondents, allowing users to transfer money and withdraw cash from their nearest authorised centre. The company is testing the service with Infosys, its technology partner. While the details of the service and its rollout seem to be sketchy as of now, Airtel's existing mobile money service, Airtel Money allows Airtel customers to pay utility bills, recharge their phones, shop at merchant outlets and make online transactions using their mobile phones. Customers who have a power account can also make instant money transfers up to Rs 10,000 between one Airtel money wallet to another, and to bank accounts across the country through NEFT (National Electronic Funds Transfer), although they can not withdraw the money physically yet. It would be interesting to see which Bank, the telco ties up with to act as a banking correspondent, since it's earlier JV with SBI had fallen through last year. We feel that Airtel will be more careful this time, and avoid any equity participation. End of the Airtel-SBI JV: In January 2011, Airtel had tied up with India’s largest commercial bank State Bank of India to announce a joint venture to offer customers mobile…
