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By SINS
Thursday, 16 September 2010, 04:51 Hrs |
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Mumbai: Wai, a small town in Satara district in Maharashtra now has an ATM that spews money anytime, even during a power cut. The credit for the incredible achievement in rural India has to be attributed to the initiative by a Chennai-based company Vortex Engineering. The company was founded by L Kannan, a mechanical engineer from IIT Madras, who has been working with non-governmental organizations in carrying out various developmental initiatives to create wealth and empower the poor, reports Manu A from Rediff.
(Vortex ATM Machine)
The ATM, named Gramateller costs Rs. 175,000, compared to a conventional ATM that cost around Rs. 800,000-1 million. The ATMs consume less than 100 watts of power resulting in a saving of about 1728 units per month and the villages where the machine has been installed typically face power cuts of 4 hours to 12 hours daily.
Kannan founded Vortex Engineering in 2001 to develop innovative technologies to transform rural India. The low-cost ATM, Gramateller was developed in association with IIT Madras and it is considered to be the biggest gift from the company to the rural India. This ATM consumes less power, functions during power cuts with a back-up power supply, and has the option of running on solar power.
The Gramateller has been granted five patents and it scores over conventional ATMs in terms of power consumption, ability to handle wide variations in quality of notes, biometric authentication as an alternative option to PIN, ability to function without the need for air-conditioning and runs on the Linux operating system.
The company has already installed 200 ATMs across various locations in India and a few have been installed abroad as well. Kannan now dreams of setting up an ATM in every Indian village, which means about 650,000 ATMs.
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(if you having troubles, try posting your comment on this page or send an email to chronicle @ itbhuglobal.org)Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University
Varanasi 221005, UP