Government authorities in India are developing a solar-powered, biometric ATM for use in rural areas.
The project was announced by Harsh Vardhan, the country’s science and technology minister. The ATM will be able to identify individuals through a thumb or fingerprint scan, presumably via communication with Aadhaar, the country’s national biometric ID program. It will also rely on graphic representations of money rather than letters and numbers, and will feature a headphone system to provide information about bank balances for illiterate users.
Vardhan says the system is currently “in its final stage” of development, with a functioning ATM likely to be ready in “two to three months”. The final product is expected to cost half as much as a conventional ATM, and a large-scale rollout could occur in 2018.
The deployment will further expand the use of Aadhaar in India’s financial services sector, with Aadhaar-based authentication making its way into ATMs and even a mobile POS system in recent months.
Source: The Economic Times
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May 8, 2017 – by Alex Perala
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