To fulfill the prime minister's Jan Dhan Yojana, eight banks have got over 12000 of their off site ATMs and rural branches connected with a secure broadband satellite. The feat was achieved by Hughes Communication India Ltd.
Valued at INR 300 million, the new contracts were awarded to Hughes by eight different banks including Punjab National Bank, HDFC Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Bank of Baroda, IDBI Bank, Dena Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank, and Odissa Gramya Bank.
To date, the total number of ATMs and bank branches connected by Hughes satellite networking is approximately 50,000. The Ministry of Finance and a consortium of public sector banks in India entered into a contract with multiple ATM Managed Service Providers for installing and managing a total of 63,000 offsite and onsite ATMs across urban and rural India, by far one of the largest initiatives adopted by the Indian Government to widen the reach of banking facilities. ATM penetration in India is expected to continue on the path of high growth and reach an estimated 200,000 ATMs by 2016.
