A Third of India’s ATMs Do Not Work

This poses a challenge to the government which strives to provide banking services to millions of rural people.

A man walks past an ATM at a State Bank of India branch in Mumbai. (Photo: Reuters)

• The Reserve Bank of India has discovered that a third of the country’s ATMs aren’t working and has ordered to fix them as soon as possible, reports the NDTV.
  
• RBI surveyed almost 4,000 ATMs across the country with a “sample size fairly representing geographies and bank categories”, according to Deputy Governor SS Mundra.
  
  
• “Survey results are not comforting in any way. Almost one third of the ATMs were found to be not working at that point,” he said.
  
  
• “Violation of regulatory instructions on display material, facilities for differently abled etc. were also observed. We will be taking necessary supervisory action in this regard,” Mundra said.
  
  
• The World Bank estimates that about 53 percent of Indian adults now have access to a formal bank account.
  
  
• In his annual budget speech in February India’s finance minister, Arun Jaitley, announced a “massive nationwide rollout” of ATMs over the next three years.

(With inputs from AFP.)