Telecom major Bharti Airtel is most likely to ink a deal with Andhra Pradesh government to adopt a bunch of villages to provide 100 per cent cashless services. The model is expected to be extended to all villages in the State, according to a highly placed source in Airtel.
“The telecom company has been asked to adopt the villages to take the banking and cashless services to the next level,” the source said.
The development took place when Venkatesh Vijayraghavan, CEO Bharati Airtel AP and Telangana, met Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu at his camp office in Vijayawada.
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When contacted, Mr. Vijayaraghavan, however, declined to comment on the development at this juncture.
“We have launched the Airtel Payments Bank in the State this week. The discussions went around the services that we can offer,” Mr. Vijayaraghavan said.
The telecom player has launched its Airtel Payments Bank four days ago. The Payments Bank offers 7.25 per cent interest per annum for the savings account deposits, Rs 1 lakh accident insurance and national talk time equivalent to the deposit amount in the bank.
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“The response for the Payments Bank has been very good in Rajasthan where we ran the pilot. Over one lakh accounts have been opened within 10 days.
In this flexible mobile banking system, customer’s mobile number becomes the account number and it is readily linked to over three million merchants across the country to do transactions and purchases,” Mr. Vijayaraghavan claimed.