The Silicon Review ^Asia

Yes Bank and the government of Maharashtra have entered into a partnership where the private banking company will transform the PDS shops (ration shops) digitally through which they can be the agents of the bank.

The partnership will pave a way for almost 20k ration shops to provide last mile basic banking services to over 7 lakhs beneficiaries. Almost over 40 percent of all the PDS shops across Pune, Palghar, Thane, Kolhapur, Latur and few others will be covered by the bank.

The new initiative will allow the customers of the shops to carry out payments by using Aadhaar Pay, bill payments and small value cash deposits. They can withdraw cash through AePS (Aadhaar enabled payments systems) and also participate in remittance activities across different branches of the bank.

With the new ePDS digital initiative, the government of Maharashtra has been able to remove over 10 lakh fake ration cards within Maharashtra. The initiatives also created fully digital inventory management for the government and shops holders. The ePDS initiative will also support the lives of shop owners by providing them with extra revenue through the various services which will be offered to the citizens.

In order to use the new services, the government is seeking to get all the Jan Dhan account holders for all their financial needs.

Through a simple digital solution, Yes bank is ready to improve the last mile inclusion and translate financial access into enhanced convenience & usage for smoother delivery of Government to Citizen (G2C) services.