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The Smart Techie was renamed Siliconindia India Edition starting Feb 2012 to continue the nearly two decade track record of excellence of our US edition.

Indian born Techie to Improve Banking for Poor

ST Team
Thursday, October 1, 2009
ST Team
Sandeep Chatterjee, a Masters and PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is appointed by the World Bank to analyze the state of technology and processes in India’s rural banking sector. His post calls for recommendations of appropriate technologies and operational processes to help financial inclusion in the country for providing access to banking facilities.

Chatterjee, who is the Managing Director of SourceTrace Systems India, will present a report on scaling up financial inclusion in India, which will be ready by 2009 end. The report will be presented in front of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and the Finance Ministry.

There are different solutions, which may help the impoverished segments. Chatterjee’s SourceTrace Systems has a 32KB smartcard called ‘India inclusion card’, which uses biometrics for recognition and also has a magnetic strip which can enable users swipe the card at ATMs or points of sale (POS). Bharti Airtel, along with Indian Farmers’ Fertilizer Cooperative (IFFCO), provides services like daily updates to farmers in Rajasthan, as Reliance Communications allows ICICI Bank customers holding Reliance handsets to make intra-bank transactions.

“These solutions cannot be used across the country. We need to scale up these projects, and make their solutions interoperable to make financial inclusion meaningful in the country,” says Chatterjee, as he embarks on the journey to make rural banking accessible for all.
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