Government of India launched the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) yesterday. An estimated 1.5 crore bank accounts were opened through a nationwide enrolment drive held at 77,892 locations, which coincided with the launch. As part of PMJDY each of the 1.5 crore bank account holders also received a RuPay debit card, Rs 1 lakh accident insurance cover, and an additional Rs 30,000 life insurance cover. The life insurance cover will be provided to all individuals who open the account before January 26, 2015. Under the PMJDY the Indian government plans to open banks accounts for 7.5 crore families by January 26, 2015. National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) has built a platform that, reportedly, connects all banks and telecom operators in the country. So far 26 public sector banks and 3 private sector banks have joined this platform. It is expected to enable customers of any bank access their accounts through even basic feature phones. They will be able to check account balance, perform money transfers, among others. In case of Bank Mitras, who will act like fixed point-of-contacts or business correspondents of banks, the platform will also provide support for cash deposits and cash withdrawals. Impact -RuPay debit cards will allow a vast majority of the country to carry out point-of-sale (PoS) transactions. This is also likely to lead to an increase in online transactions on e-commerce portals. If the financial literacy programme does materialise at the ground-level, it is likely to provide a further fillip to online…
