Hi-tech, low-cost ATMs for rural areas?

he air is abuzz with talk of a new hi-tech, low-cost deal for farmers and other rural folk. Hub and spoke models are spoken of, and ATMs wired for bio-and speech-recognition.

Salaries, loan disbursals, proceeds of bulk sales at procurement centres and market yards, and revenue earned by sales to private traders, could be directly credited at a centralised location.

Indiscriminate Lending

Account holders could check that this has been done, or draw on this money at any one of the dozens of ATMs sprinkled all over the place. Tedious visits to branches, time and time again, would no longer be necessary. But, though life would become a great deal easier for account holders, whose numbers would, therefore, increase in leaps and bounds, bankers themselves would need to be pretty nimble to avoid indiscriminate lending and ensure good recoveries.

Customers, too, would face a problem if they wished to deposit cash. ATMs can pay out thousands in a jiffy. But their ability to count is greater than their ability to recognise what they are counting.

They can be `taught' how to scrutinise notes fed into them. But they are slow learners. It would still take them three to five minutes to verify every note. Feeding 100 tenor fifty rupee notes into an ATM would take pretty much all day