(a) whether the Government is planning to introduce e-ATM services for farmers with fingerprint/ATM based banking services linked with Aadhaar and if so, the details thereof; and
(b) whether the Government is also planning to provided one time minimum premium life covering/accidental policy for farmers in the country and if so, the details thereof?
The Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance
(a): In terms of the revised guidelines for Kisan Credit Card (KCC) issued by Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the beneficiaries under the Scheme are required to be issued with a Smart card/Debit card (Biometric smart card compatible for use in the ATMs hand held swipe machines and capable of storing adequate information on farmers identity, assets, land holdings and credit profile etc). The Scheme provides options to provide any or combination of the following types of cards:
i. A magnetic stripe card with PIN (Personal Identification Number) with an ISO IIN (International Standards Organization International Identification Number) to enable access to all banks ATMs and micro ATMs
ii. In cases where the Banks would want to utilize the centralized biometric authentication infrastructure of the UIDAI (Aadhaar authentication), Debit cards with magnetic stripe and PIN with ISO IIN with biometric authentication of UIDAI can be provided.
iii. Debit Cards with magnetic stripe and only biometric authentication can also be provided depending on customer base of the bank. Till such time, UIDAI becomes widespread, if the banks want to get started without inter-operability using their existing centralized bio metric infrastructure, banks may do so.
iv. Banks may choose to issue EMV (Europay, Master Card and VISA, a global standard for inter-operation of integrated circuit cards) compliant chip cards with magnetic stripe and pin with ISO IIN.
(b) Under the KCC Scheme, besides the mandatory crop insurance, farmers have an option to take benefit of Assets Insurance, Personal Accident Insurance Scheme (PAIS) and Health Insurance (wherever product is available), with the provision of the premium to be paid through their KCC accounts. Necessary premium from KCC accounts is paid to the insurance companies, on the basis of agreed ratio between bank and farmer.
Presently, no proposal regarding one time minimum premium for life covering/accidental scheme for farmers is under consideration of the Government. However, it may be stated that the revision/ improvement in the crop insurance schemes is a continuous process.
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