ATMs may accept cash directly

The ATMs to be deployed by the banks will come equipped with a cashacceptor, which will accept currency notes of denominations between Rs 50 andRs 1,000.

At present, ATMs accept cash in an envelope, which is manually credited intothe depositor's account. Therefore, it takes a day or more for the money toappear in the bank account. The new cash deposit feature will speed up theprocess. Moreover, the machines will be programmed to automatically retract thenotes left behind by customers. The committee, which was led by AshokJhunjhunwala, professor, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, has also suggested that these ATMshave solar powered back-up and a surveillance mechanism in place for bettersafety.

The committee has suggested that ATMs must have an internal camera, whichshould store digital images of the users and be able to stamp the transactioninformation on these images. When we contacted Jhunjhunwala, he confirmed thatthe initiative came from the finance ministry and the recommendations are withthe financial services department of the ministry.