The State Bank of India has launched the ‘Nation First Transit Card’. It facilitate the seamless and convenient customer commuting experience and ensure easy digital ticketing fare payments in metro, buses, water ferries, parking, etc., through a single card. In addition, individuals can also use this card for making retail and e-commerce payments.
- The Nation First Transit Card is powered by RuPay and National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) technology.
National Common Mobility Card (NCMC)
- The National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) is an inter-system transport card that was launched on March 4, 2019.
- The idea of the card was first floated by the Deepening of Digital Payments (CDDP) committee, which was established by the Reserve Bank of India and chaired by Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani.
- Launched with the aim of providing a common contactless transport solution by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, the NCMC card relies on the RuPay platform developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
- The NCMC card has 2 instruments on it – a regular debit card which can be used at an ATM, and a local wallet (stored value account), which can be used for contactless payments, without the need to go back to the server or additional authentication.
- It is envisioned that a single card will be usable for all local travel needs across the country. The card allows travellers to pay for travel, toll duties (toll tax), retail shopping as well as withdraw money.
- The card can function as a travel smart card on several transport systems.
- The card is issued in the form of a prepaid, debit, or credit RuPay card by 25 banks including State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Paytm Payments Bank and more.
- There is provision of storing money on the card, which can be used for contactless payments across various use cases like toll transit, parking etc. The wallet where money is stored is referred as Global/Card wallet.
