Solar-powered SBI ATMs in villages soon!

If erratic power supply has been a deterrent to banks in setting up automated teller machines (ATMs) in rural areas, here is a simple solution from a Chennai-based company. Go Solar!

With a view to building technology for practical use and with rural focus, Vortex Engineering Pvt Ltd, in association with Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M), has come up with a unique solar-powered ATMs that consume less power, are more rugged and that can accept soiled notes!

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And the idea, which had its successful pilot testing in Cuddalore, IIT-Madras and Bihar for two months, has been immediately lapped up by State Bank of India, the country's top bank.

The bank has placed an order worth Rs 18 crore with Vortex Engineering for installing about 545 ATMs in rural areas across the country of which 300 will be powered by solar energy. This will be the country's first ever-largest rollout of solar-powered ATMs.

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Announcing the commercial launch of the Vortex Gramateller Duo ATMs, V. Vijay Babu, CEO of the company, said, fitted with inbuilt battery packs that can last up to 7-hours and with standard solar panels, Gramateller consumes less than 100 W of power compared to conventional ATMs that consume 1000 W. Also, zero air-conditioning saves more power up to 1728 units per month compared to the conventional ones.

This apart, they also reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by at least 18,500 kg per year, he added. Another key feature of Vortex Gramateller is its built-in biometric capabilities. The ATM does not need a PIN number for the card to function but can work with the fingerprint of the customers as authentication.

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"With a predominantly illiterate population in rural India, we decided to address the issue with a simple fingerprint identification for ATMs. Once registered with the bank, customers can use either biometric authentication or PIN number approval for cash withdrawal," Vijay said.

Vortex's biometric ATMs had recently been used by the government of India to disburse wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in Cuddalore district as a test run, he added.

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But the real challenge in the design was to let the machine accept soiled or 'teller-grade' notes, said Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthy of IIT-Madras, who has been the key co-ordinator in developing the new ATM technology for Vortex. "The lack of ATM-fit notes and preference of the rural population to get soiled notes impelled us in developing this technology which saw a lot of changes since its conception," he said.

Apart from solar, soiled notes and biometric properties, Gramateller incorporates completely new ATM technology design and we have filed five patents under different categories, said L. Kannan, founder and CTO of Vortex Engineering.

Currently, ATM penetration in India is about 0.04 per 1000 people while the ideal, as projected by the RBI, is to have one ATM for every 1,000 people. There are only about 45,000 ATMs in the country of which less than 10,000 of them are located in rural areas.