Monday, March 25, 2019

NATIONAL COMMON MOBILITY CARD (NCMC)


Information Technology has brought us many such facilities which were beyond our imagination a few years ago. Financial Sector, particularly Financial Technology is a major beneficiary of Information Technology. The ‘Fintech” arena is flooded with various technologies, products, services, systems, procedures, outlets, instruments, etc for providing convenience, speed, safety, privacy and finality of transaction on real time basis. Fintech has changed the face of banking and payment methods. 

       The latest entrant in the arena is National Common Mobility Card launched by our Honourable Prime Minister on 4th March, 2019 at Ahmedabad. The Card, also dubbed as “One Nation One Card”, is an inter-operable mobility card conceptualised by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs of the Government of India. 


   The card is an indigenously developed product, and is a part of the Make In India Project, on which every Indian can pride as very few countries have indigenously developed common mobility card. The Card is conceptualized and developed by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in collaboration with national level financial and technological organizations and brightest brains of the country. 

The features of NCMC: 

1. Technology: Contactless Smart Open Loop Card with Stored Value. 

2. Security: Globally accepted EMV Card (the EMV stands for its chip innovator Europay, MasterCard, and Visa) 

3. Chip: Embedded microprocessor chip that stores value and protects cardholder data.

4. Acceptability: The card is inter-operable which facilitates the holders to pay for their metro travel, sub-urban trains, ferry, bus, toll taxes, parking charges, retail shopping and even to withdraw money from ATM. It works on RuPay Card mechanism. 

5. Payment Channel: Management, clearing and settlement of payments to be done by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). NPCI plays pivotal role in the entire eco-system.

6. Issuance of the Card: At present the State Bank of India is issuing the Card for Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. Gradually its it will be issued by all authorized banks at other centres for multi-purpose use. 

7. Benefits: 

7.1 As the Card is interoperable, it can be used to pay fares for different types of operators/ merchants as per their specific commercials (concession, loyalty points, etc).

7.2 A single card for different modes of transport provides a high degree of convenience for passengers. They no longer have to stand in multiple lines for purchasing ticket

7.3 No need to carry different types of cards as the NCMC is interoperable and vendor agnostic.

7.4 Eliminates queues at stations

7.5 No need to carry cash / change

7.6 Saves time of the Card Holders in making the payment and no need to purchase paper ticket/monthly pass/ season ticket.

7.7 Public Transport operators can save cost on manpower as paper ticketing is done away with.

7.8 Risk of handling cash: Acquirers/Operators/Merchants can eliminate risk associated with handling cash.

7.9 Leakages: Revenue leakages can be plugged.

7.10 No need to enter PIN upto predetermined limit fixed by the issuing bank. 

7.11 Offline transaction: This functionality is very useful in areas where connectivity is erratic. As the “value” is stored in the Card,  it supports offline transaction with minimal financial risk to stakeholders associated with the transaction.

7.12 Topping up: The Card can be Topped Up through usual mode of payment – Net Banking, Credit Card, Debit Card, Cash at Top up Kiosk/ Manned Counters, etc

7.13 Record of Transactions: NCMC provides digital trails of past transactions. This helps to prevent misuse.

Way forward: 

The launch of the Card is a crucial step in carrying our Honourable Prime Minister’s dream project “Digital India”, a step forward in right direction. Now our goal of “Less Cash Society” is going to be materialized in near future, paving the way for “Cashless Society”.  

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